Category Archives: China

Close ties allow Russian propaganda to spread swiftly through China, report claims

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A cyber monitoring group says Chinese sources are amplifying disinformation about Ukrainian ‘nazism’

Close ties between Russian and Chinese state media along with strict government control of information have allowed Russian propaganda to spread swiftly throughout China, “nazifying” Ukraine in the eyes of some Chinese citizens and fostering pro-Russian sentiment, a new report has claimed.

Taiwan-based cyber monitoring group, Doublethink Labs, tracked state and social media from mid-February until late March. It said Chinese sources were amplifying Russian disinformation about Ukraine and linking Ukrainian nazism to the Hong Kong protests to encourage solidarity between Russian and Chinese people against “foreign forces interfering with internal affairs”.

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Security agreement with China ‘initialled’ by both countries, Solomon Islands says

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Pacific nation has batted away concerns from Australia, New Zealand and the US, saying its policy is ‘friends to all and enemies to none’

Solomon Islands has announced it is pushing ahead with a security agreement with China hours after a senior Australian defence force officer said the deal may force Canberra to change the way it conducts air and sea operations in the Pacific.

The Solomon Islands government said officials from both countries had on Thursday “initialled” elements of the proposed security agreement with China which would be signed at a later date.

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It may be too late to stop China-Solomon Islands treaty, former Australian intelligence chief says

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Coalition urged to refrain from megaphone diplomacy as it tries to persuade Honiara to change course

China’s proposed treaty with Solomon Islands is an “adverse development for Australia’s security” but it may be too late to stop the deal, a former senior Australian intelligence official has warned.

Richard Maude, head of the Office of National Assessments from 2013 to 2016 and an experienced former diplomat, urged the Morrison government not to engage in megaphone diplomacy as it tried to persuade Solomon Islands to change course.

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‘Pick the shelves clean’: food shortage rap helps cut through gloom of Shanghai lockdown

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Residents in China’s largest city express growing frustration with Covid measures, as well as anger over food shortages

A rap about food shortages has become a hit in Shanghai, with the artists behind the song describing it as an attempt to “cheer up” tens of millions of residents locked down in China’s largest city amid a surging Covid outbreak and increasing restrictions.

The song, Grocery Shopping, laments empty shelves and fights in the supermarket aisles, and is set to footage of residents crowding around market stalls, or lining up for PCR tests.

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Hong Kong hospitals will no longer separate Covid-infected children from parents

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U-turn comes after health policy caused outrage among families and campaigners in city

Hong Kong hospital authorities have made a U-turn to allow parents of Covid-positive children to accompany them in paediatric wards, regardless of their own Covid status, as the city’s “fifth wave” of the virus eases.

Many toddlers were hospitalised during the Omicron-fuelled outbreak, which peaked this month, government data showed. But until recent days, only parents who also tested positive were allowed to remain in the same ward as their children.

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Solomon Islands prime minister says foreign criticism of China security deal ‘very insulting’

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Manasseh Sogavare says it is ‘utter nonsense’ that China’s presence is a threat to regional stability

Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has dismissed foreign criticism of the country’s security negotiations with China as “insulting” and called those who leaked the draft agreement “lunatics”, in his first comments to parliament on the proposed treaty.

“We find it very insulting, Mr Speaker, to be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs,” Sogavare said on Tuesday.

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Australia’s lost influence in Pacific on display in Solomon Islands-China deal, Anthony Albanese says

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Labor leader says inaction on climate change and cuts to foreign aid have broken trust, forcing Pacific nations to turn elsewhere

Australia has lost influence in the Pacific by failing to act on climate and cutting foreign aid, Anthony Albanese says, amid concerns about China’s proposed security deal with Solomon Islands.

Australia and New Zealand are worried the draft agreement could jeopardise regional stability, with China having the opportunity to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast.

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Shanghai begins locking down millions as China’s Covid cases surge

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China will shut down city in two stages as it sticks to a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy amid growing outbreaks

Shanghai has begun its phased lockdown as an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave spreads through mainland China’s most significant financial hub, resulting in the highest caseloads in the country since the early days of the pandemic.

The eastern side of the Huangpu River, which divides Shanghai, would be under lockdown between Monday and Friday, officials said, followed by similar restrictions across its western side from 1 April. Massing Covid testing across the city is also under way.

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China Eastern plane crash: both black boxes found, all 132 on board dead

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Searchers find flight data recorder buried 1.5 metres underground by impact, after earlier recovering cockpit voice recorder

Both flight recorders or “black boxes” have been recovered from the crash of a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 that killed all 132 people on board, Chinese state media has said.

Searchers found the second box, the flight data recorder, on a mountain slope, buried about 1.5 metres underground by the impact, the state broadcaster CCTV said. The impact of the crash scattered debris widely and created a 20-metre deep pit in the side of the mountain.

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Shanghai rules out full lockdown despite sharp rise in Covid cases

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Concern about economy leads city to try targeted approach with rolling restrictions of individual neighbourhoods

Shanghai has recorded a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, but officials have ruled out a full lockdown over the damage it would do to the economy.

Millions of Chinese in affected areas have been subjected to city-wide lockdowns by an Omicron-led outbreak that has sent daily case counts creeping ever-higher, though they remain insignificant compared with other countries.

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Russia’s invasion crystallises divide between west and rest of world

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Ukraine crisis is uniting democracies in Europe and Pacific but complicating relationships with China, India and Gulf states

“Decide who you are with” Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European council, pointing to a choice that is becoming increasingly hard to avoid, as the sheer violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crystallises the division of the world into two camps.

The camp that stands with Russians is becoming easier to define with every passing day of the war. The colour-coded scoreboard at the UN general assembly in recent weeks, recording the votes on resolutions deploring the attack and calling for a ceasefire, could not have been clearer.

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Scott Morrison says it would have been ‘weakness’ for him to meet new Chinese ambassador

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Australian prime minister defends level of support for Solomon Islands and rest of Pacific amid tensions over security deal

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, says there will be no diplomatic thaw in relations with China until it lifts a block on ministerial meetings.

“So long as China continues to refuse to have dialogue with Australian ministers and the prime minister, I think that’s an entirely proportional response,” Morrison told reporters on Saturday regarding reports he declined to meet China’s new ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian.

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Australian journalist Chen Lei to face court in Beijing on Thursday, sources say

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Lei, who was detained in 2020, was arrested and charged with illegally supplying state secrets overseas – but her family have denied wrongdoing

An Australian journalist will face court in Beijing next Thursday on state secrets charges, after being detained for more than 19 months, sources close to the case say.

Cheng Lei, who worked as a television anchor for Chinese state media for a decade before being detained in 2020, was formally arrested a year ago on allegations of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.

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Chinese draft security deal with Solomon Islands didn’t blindside Australia, Morrison says

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Analysts say unratified document which would allow China to base ships in the Pacific is a ‘wish list’ which reveals nation’s intent in ‘black and white’

Scott Morrison says Australia was not blindsided by a draft security deal between China and Solomon Islands, which experts warn has demonstrated a “black and white” intent at expanding influence in the Pacific.

The draft would allow China to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast, but some experts, including the Lowy Institute’s Jonathan Pryke, caution it reads more like a “wishlist” from China than a finalised agreement.

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Secret shipment of replica guns to Solomon Islands police by China triggers concern

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Police had been criticised after reports that a ‘shipment of arms’ arrived in the country on a logging vessel from an unknown source

A shipment of replica firearms by China to Solomon Islands police has caused concern as the Pacific nation grapples with security concerns sparked by its increasingly close relationship with Beijing.

The police force had been criticised over the secrecy surrounding delivery of what a local media report called a “large shipment of arms” that arrived in the country on a logging vessel earlier this month from an unknown source.

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Taiwan may extend conscription as Ukraine invasion stokes China fears

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Russian attack reignites debate about Taiwan’s readiness for potential Chinese invasion

Taiwan is considering extending compulsory military service for young citizens to a year, its defence minister has said, in an apparent reverse of the island’s years-long transition from conscription towards a fully voluntary military.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reignited debates in Taiwan over the readiness of its defence force for a potential invasion by China, which claims the island as a province it must at some point “retake”. Taiwan’s government has been increasing defence spending and its weapons procurement from the US, but at the same time has been trying to change its defence force to an entirely voluntary organisation and address long-running problems with training and resources.

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‘Really concerning’: China finalising security deal with Solomon Islands to base warships in the Pacific

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Draft agreement circulating on social media suggests China could establish military base less than 2,000km from Australia

Australian officials are alarmed at Solomon Islands’ planned security deal with China with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, stating “we would be concerned clearly about any military base being established” less than 2,000km off the coast.

Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration.

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Britain and US agree on steel tariffs as hopes of broader trade deal recede

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Pact ends months of tensions but talks on full free-trade agreement remain far off

The UK has struck a deal with the US to remove tariffs on British steel exports, although trade experts warned a broader trade deal between the two countries remains far off.

The agreement was struck after UK’s international trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met her counterpart, the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, on Tuesday evening in Washington.

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China Eastern Airlines crash: recovery crews find black box recorder

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Officials hope retrieval of one of two onboard flight recorders will shed light on crash in mountainous area of Guangxi

Chinese recovery crews have found one of the two black box flight recorders from the China Eastern Airlines jet that crashed on Monday with 132 people on board, regulators have said.

The domestic passenger plane plunged from more than 20,000ft into a mountainous area of Guangxi, sparking an intense bamboo fire and almost disintegrating on impact. Response officials said the circumstances of the crash meant investigators faced “a very high level of difficulty” in establishing a cause.

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‘A blatant lie’: China and Taiwan fight for credit over rescue of sailors lost at sea for 29 days

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Both governments are claiming responsibility for rescue of nine Papua New Guinean nationals last month

Tensions between China and Taiwan have found an unlikely battleground – a fight over who rescued nine Papua New Guinean sailors who were lost at sea for nearly a month.

The dispute came after the rescue of the Papua New Guinean nationals in Solomon Island waters after 29 days lost at sea, late in February.

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