Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Papua New Guinea’s PM to address Australian parliament as Pacific security race with China builds

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Anthony Albanese and James Marape to meet on Thursday amid rising domestic pressures on the PNG leader

Australia will roll out the red carpet to the visiting Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape, amid efforts to stall China’s security talks with the Pacific country.

Marape is due to arrive in Canberra on Wednesday before he addresses a joint sitting of the Australian parliament on Thursday – the first Pacific leader to be afforded this honour.

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Ukraine-born Miss Japan returns title after revelations about affair

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Karolina Shiino had already caused controversy when she became first European-born woman to win title

A Ukraine-born woman who was criticised for not being “Japanese enough” after winning the Miss Japan contest last month has relinquished the title after a weekly magazine revealed she had been having an affair with a married man.

Karolina Shiino drew praise and criticism after she won the Miss Japan title last month, becoming the first woman of European descent to receive the accolade. The 26-year-old was born in Ukraine to Ukrainian parents, who moved to Japan when she was five.

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Concern for killer whales trapped in drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido in Japan

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Japanese media report that pod of orcas became trapped in ice close to Rausu on Shiretoko peninsula

Concern is growing for the welfare of a pod of killer whales that appear to have become trapped in drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan.

Footage aired by the public broadcaster NHK on Tuesday showed at least 10 orcas poking out of a small gap in the surface of the water about 1 km off the coast of Rausu on the Shiretoko peninsula – a Unesco world heritage site famed for its abundant wildlife.

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Company worker in Hong Kong pays out £20m in deepfake video call scam

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Police investigate after employee says she was tricked into sending money to fraudsters posing as senior officers at her firm

Hong Kong police have launched an investigation after an employee at an unnamed company claimed she was duped into paying HK$200m (£20m) of her firm’s money to fraudsters in a deepfake video conference call.

The Hong Kong police force said it had received a report from a worker that she had been tricked into transferring the money by someone “posing as senior officers of the company”.

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Comments on Weibo giraffe post bemoan state of Chinese economy

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Social media users get around government crackdown on negativity via US embassy conservation update

A social media post about giraffe conservation has become the latest place for people in China who are unhappy about the economy to vent their frustration, as the Chinese government increasingly cracks down on negative commentary.

On 2 February, the US embassy in China posted an update on its Weibo account about tracking giraffes in Namibia using GPS technology. As of Monday afternoon local time, the post had received approximately 166,000 comments, many of them about China’s economic pains.

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Australian academic Yang Hengjun given suspended death sentence by Chinese court

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Australia’s foreign minister says government is ‘appalled’ by sentence, which could mean life in prison

The Australian academic Yang Hengjun has been given a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court, after five years in detention on espionage charges. His sentence came on the same day that the women’s rights activist Li Qiaochu was sentenced to three years and eight months by a court in Shandong for “inciting subversion of state power”.

Yang was arrested in 2019 at Guangzhou airport, accused of spying for an undisclosed foreign country. The 57-year-old pro-democracy blogger is an Australian citizen who was born in China. He was tried in a one-day, closed-door hearing in Beijing in May 2021, with a verdict not publicly disclosed.

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Philippines says it is ready to use force to quell secession attempts as Duterte row deepens

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Former president has called for his home town, Mindanao, to split from the Philippines as his alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr crumbles

The Philippine government is ready to use “authority and forces” against attempts to divide the nation, a security official has said, after former president Rodrigo Duterte threatened to separate some southern islands from the rest of the archipelago.

Duterte has called for the independence of his home town, Mindanao, from the Philippines as his alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr disintegrated this week over disagreements around efforts to amend the constitution.

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Dying man tells police he was on Japan’s most wanted list for 50 years

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Now deceased man said he was Satoshi Kirishima who was allegedly member of radical group in 1970s that bombed Japanese firms

A dying man in a Japanese hospital told police that he was one of the country’s most wanted fugitives and had been on the run for nearly 50 years for being part of a radical group that carried out bombings in the 1970s, police have said.

After receiving a tip, police went to the hospital near Tokyo last week to question the 70-year-old man. He told them he had terminal cancer and wanted to die under his real name, Satoshi Kirishima, instead of his alias, and disclosed previously unknown details about the bombings, police said.

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New Zealand steps up interest in Aukus as Pacific security concerns grow

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Australia to send delegation to NZ ‘very shortly’ to brief on second pillar of Aukus alliance after ministers meet in Melbourne

New Zealand has stepped up its interest in joining the non-nuclear pillar of Aukus, amid China’s growing presence in the Pacific and broader concerns over a “reshaped world”.

New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters – also a deputy prime minister – and the defence minister, Judith Collins, travelled to Melbourne to meet with their Australian counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles, for the inaugural “2+2” Australia and New Zealand foreign and defence ministers’ meeting on Thursday.

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‘A race against time’: Taiwan strives to root out China’s spies

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As Beijing has increased its efforts to recruit Taiwanese people, the number of spying cases has risen

In November, a Taiwan court heard accusations that two serving soldiers had accepted bribes from Chinese agents to record a video declaring their loyalty to China and their intention to defect in the event of a war. The video reportedly made its way into Chinese propaganda materials.

Weeks later, a conviction over a similar accusation was upheld against a retired army colonel. The colonel was found guilty of having accepted monthly payments totalling more than half a million Taiwan dollars (£12,500) to delay his retirement for years and serve as a spy. Local media reports said the colonel also posed for a photo holding a handwritten note, pledging his loyalty to Beijing’s cause of annexing Taiwan to the Chinese state.

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US military stockpiling supplies in Australia in readiness for any confrontation with China

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American war planners used joint Talisman Sabre exercises to position equipment in northern Victoria

When US and Australian troops practised amphibious landings, ground combat and air operations last year, they drew headlines about the allies deepening defence cooperation to counter China’s growing military ambitions.

But for US war planners preparing for a potential conflict over Taiwan, the high-profile Talisman Sabre exercises had a far more discrete value: they helped create new stockpiles of military equipment that were established in Australia after the drills ended in August, US officials said.

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Elderly Uyghur women imprisoned in China for decades-old religious ‘crimes’, leaked files reveal

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Hundreds of women sentenced for practices such as studying the Qur’an, dating back as far back as 60s and 70s, analysis of Chinese police files shows

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur female religious leaders are estimated to have been arrested and imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2014, with some elderly women detained for practices that took place decades ago, according to an analysis of leaked Chinese police files.

There is growing evidence of the abusive treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population of the north-west Chinese region of Xinjiang, with their traditions and religion seen as evidence of extremism and separatism.

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Carmakers may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour, NGO investigation finds

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Companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD could do more to ensure their strict standards are applied in China, Human Rights Watch says

Car manufacturers Toyota, Volkswagen, Tesla, General Motors and BYD may be using aluminium made by Uyghur forced labour in their supply chains and could do more to minimise that risk, Human Rights Watch says.

An investigation conducted by HRW has alleged that while most automotive companies have strict human rights standards to audit their global supply chains, they may not be applying the same rigorous sourcing rules for their operations inside China.

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Fiji transfixed as reports of ministerial sex scandal threaten ruling coalition

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Leaked intimate images allegedly depicting affair between two ministers captivate nation and rattle prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition

A sex scandal involving allegations of an extramarital affair between two ministers, leaked intimate images and suggestions of drug use during a ministerial trip has gripped Fiji, rattling the government and raising questions over whether the coalition can survive.

The conservative Pacific nation of about 1 million people has been transfixed by the saga which centres on an alleged affair between the minister for women, Lynda Tabuya, and former minister for education Aseri Radrodro, a married man. Radrodro also used to be son-in-law to the prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka. Discussion about the allegations has flooded social media in recent weeks, with some Fijians calling for their resignation, while others want accountability and an explanation from the coalition that has been in power for just over a year.

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Myanmar hands over junta-backed warlords to China in telecoms scam case

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Ten people extradited on Tuesday accused of being key figures in fraud involving victims of trafficking

Myanmar has extradited 10 people, including notorious warlords, to China, where they are wanted for their alleged role in running abusive online and telephone fraud centres in which tens of thousands of foreign nationals are trapped and forced to run scams.

The centres – which target people in China as well as in other countries - have flourished since the Covid-19 pandemic and China says about 44,000 people have been involved, including victims of human trafficking.

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Thai court rules Move Forward party must end bid to reform lese-majesty law

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Opposition leader rejects claims party is seeking to cause deterioration of monarchy

Thailand’s constitutional court has ruled that the opposition party’s pledge to reform the country’s lese-majesty law is unlawful and that it must cease such efforts.

The court ordered the Move Forward party and its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, to stop all forms of communication aimed at bringing reforms to the law, under which criticism of the powerful royal family can lead to up to 15 years in prison on a single charge.

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Malaysia swears in motorbike-riding billionaire as new king under rotating monarchy system

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Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar takes the throne at a time when royal intervention has been increasingly needed to deal with political instability

Malaysia has sworn in an outspoken motorcycle-riding king in what’s believed to be the world’s only rotating system of monarchy.

Nine ethnic Malay state rulers have taken turns as king for five-year terms since Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957.

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Japan’s former PM, 83-year-old Aso, piles insults on female foreign minister

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Taro Aso, vice-president of ruling LDP, said Yoko Kamikawa ‘not that good looking’, got her name wrong, used ageist jibe and mixed up her place in history

A Japanese former prime minister and vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic party has been accused of sexism after making insulting comments about the foreign minister’s appearance and age.

“She’s not that good looking,” Taro Aso, who has a long history of inappropriate remarks, said of Yoko Kamikawa during a recent speech, before awkwardly praising her abilities as a politician. “But she speaks with dignity, speaks properly in English and makes appointments with people she needs to see on her own, without help from diplomats.”

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New Zealand to ban PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in cosmetics in 2026

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Country may be the first to do so, amid increasing concerns about the health and environmental risks posed by the virtually indestructible chemicals

New Zealand is banning so-called “forever chemicals” in cosmetics from 2026, in what could be the first example of a country doing so.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) said it has banned the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics to protect people and the environment from the chemicals.

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Prominent Australians urge Albanese government to adopt activist middle power role to head off war between US and China

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Statement signed by former foreign ministers, a Nobel laureate and academics outlines anxieties about possibility of conflict in Indo-Pacific region

Australia must step up diplomatic efforts to “avert the horror of great power conflict” and reduce the risk of being dragged into a war between the US and China, according to 50 prominent Australians.

The group, who include the former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, is urging the Albanese government to play an “activist middle power” role to reduce tensions between Australia’s top security ally and its biggest trading partner.

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