Category Archives: China

Australia takes China to WTO over its trade sanctions on Australian wines

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Coalition says despite going to the World Trade Organization it ‘remains open to engaging directly with Beijing to resolve the issue’

Australia is lodging a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization over China imposing anti-dumping duties on Australian wine exports, the federal government announced on Saturday.

The decision follows “extensive consultation with Australia’s winemakers”, it said, adding: “Australia remains open to engaging directly with China to resolve this issue.”

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Kiwi wars: the golden fruit fuelling a feud between New Zealand and China

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One firm’s attempt to regain control of illegal cultivation shows Wellington’s lack of leverage over its largest trade partner

It is the story of a global superpower, a smuggling operation, pestilence and a small hairy fruit.

Ubiquitous on supermarket shelves and in lunchboxes, the humble kiwi is New Zealand’s most valuable horticultural export. Recent battles for control of the fruit, however, have shone a light on tensions in New Zealand’s relationship with China.

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In hunt for Covid’s origin, new studies point away from lab leak theory

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Amid the heavily politicised debate, a lot of evidence now points to a natural spillover event – but other causes cannot be ruled out

The coronavirus pandemic has raised so many questions as it has continued its inexorable spread across the planet, but perhaps the first of them remains the most contentious: where did Sars-CoV-2 come from?

In recent weeks there has been renewed focus on whether it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory. However, new findings strengthen the case for a natural origin, in what has become a heavily politicised debate.

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‘We have more in common than what separates us’: refugee stories, told by refugees

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In One Thousand Dreams, award-winning photographer Robin Hammond hands the camera to refugees. Often reduced by the media’s toxic or well-meaning narratives, the portraits and interviews capture a different and more complex tale

Robin Hammond has spent two decades crisscrossing the developing world and telling other people’s stories. From photographing the Rohingya forced out of Myanmar and rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to documenting the lives of people in countries where their sexuality is illegal, his work has earned him award after award.

But for his latest project the photographer has embarked on a paradigm shift: to remove himself – and others like him – from the process entirely. Instead, as part of an in-depth exploration of the refugee experience in Europe, the stories of those featured are told by those who, arguably, know them best: other refugees.

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Hongkongers queue to buy Apple Daily copies after editor-in-chief arrested

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Public outpouring of support for tabloid after raid on offices by national security police

Hongkongers queued at city news stands before dawn on Friday to buy the latest edition of the Apple Daily newspaper, a day after national security police arrested its editor-in-chief and four other directors.

On Thursday morning hundreds of officers from the Hong Kong police national security department raided the homes of the employees, including editor-in-chef Ryan Law, and the Apple Daily newsroom for the second time in less than a year. It froze millions of dollars in company assets.

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‘Worst of times’: Hong Kong media defiant amid police crackdown

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Apple Daily hits back after executives arrested in second raid on pro-democracy paper’s newsroom

Apple Daily’s journalism has ruffled feathers since its establishment in 1995. A populist Hong Kong tabloid owned by Jimmy Lai, a pro-Trump media mogul and now jailed activist, the paper is fond of sensational crime stories, celebrity gossip, and investigations into government scandals and corruption. It’s a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement, a thorn in the side of police, and has become a symbol of resistance against Hong Kong’s crackdown.

Hong Kong’s police commissioner has accused it of creating hatred. Pro-Beijing media have called for it to be shut down. Lai has said the paper is on the right side of history.

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Hong Kong Apple Daily raid targeted ‘conspiracy’, claims security chief – video

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Hong Kong's security chief, John Lee, accused the five Apple Daily directors arrested on Thursday of using 'journalistic work as a tool to endanger national security'. 

Lee said the five were arrested on suspicion of collusion with foreign countries or external elements to invite sanctions or other hostile activities. In a significant escalation in the government’s moves to rein in the Hong Kong press, Apple Daily's newsroom and offices were searched and HK$18m (US $2.3m) in assets frozen

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Hong Kong police arrest editor of Apple Daily newspaper – video

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Ryan Law, the editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, has been arrested along with four other directors of the pro-democracy newspaper on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or 'external elements' to endanger national security. The newspaper's owner, Jimmy Lai, is serving a jail sentence on charges relating to pro-democracy protests in 2019

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First astronauts blast off for China’s new space station

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Hugely prestigious event for China as Beijing prepares to mark 100th anniversary of ruling Communist party

China’s first crewed spacecraft in nearly five years blasted off from the Gobi desert on Thursday morning, carrying astronauts to the new Tiangong space station.

A Long March-2F rocket carried the three astronauts in the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, and was expected to dock with Tianhe, the main section of the Tiangong station, about six to eight hours later.

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Hong Kong police arrest editor-in-chief of Apple Daily newspaper in morning raids

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Ryan Law among five directors detained under national security legislation imposed by Beijing

Hong Kong national security police have arrested the editor-in-chief and four other directors of the Apple Daily newspaper in early morning raids involving more than 100 officers, in the latest crackdown on the media.

The police force’s national security department said the five directors had been arrested on suspicion of collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security. All were arrested at their homes, at around 7am.

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China set to administer 1bn Covid vaccine doses by end of this week

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Cash incentives and gifts offered to fulfil target of vaccinating 40% of population by end of month

China is on track to administer 1bn vaccine doses by the end of this week, after bolstering production and distribution networks in an ambitious drive to vaccinate 40% of the population by this month.

Chinese authorities have been encouraging people to take the free and voluntary doses with cash incentives, gifts and colour-coded signage to laud or shame businesses depending on vaccination rates, as well as the promise of protection against Covid-19.

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China hits back at ‘slanderous’ Nato claim it poses threat to west

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Beijing’s European mission issues a forceful response to Nato communique, saying it shows a ‘cold war mentality’

China’s mission to the European Union has urged Nato to stop exaggerating the “China threat theory” after the group’s leaders warned that the country presents “systemic challenges”.

Leaders from the transatlantic security alliance took a forceful stance towards Beijing on Monday in a communique at United States president Joe Biden’s first summit with the alliance.

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China prepares to send astronauts to new space station

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Crew reportedly getting ready to blast off this week to the Tiangong on China’s longest crewed space mission to date

The first crew for China’s new space station has reportedly begun final preparations to blast off this week.

The mission is China’s first crewed spaceflight in nearly five years, and a matter of prestige for the government as it prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party on 1 July with a propaganda blitz.

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Expect China to be furious at being cast as a threat to the west

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Analysis: Beijing may well seek to undermine Nato unity in response to being accused of posing a systemic challenge to western values

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) was established on 4 April 1949, its mission was to counterbalance armies from the Soviet Union that were stationed in central and eastern Europe after the conclusion of the second world war.

After Emmanuel Macron, the current leader of one of its founding members, France, called it “brain-dead” in 2019, some analysts said the alliance will have to look for a new unifying mission to keep itself relevant in the new age of great power competition between the United States and China.

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Delta variant of Covid spreading rapidly and detected in 74 countries

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Concerns over impact on poorer countries, while richer governments try different containment measures

The Delta variant of Covid-19, first identified in India, has been detected in 74 countries and continues to spread rapidly amid fears that it is poised to become the dominant strain worldwide.

With outbreaks of the main Delta strain and several of its sub-lineages confirmed in China, the US, Africa, Scandinavia and the Pacific, concern increasingly is focusing on how it appears to be more transmissible as well as causing more serious illness.

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Nato summit: leaders to agree that China presents security risk

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Communique will be first time alliance will have asserted it needs to respond to China’s growing power

Nato leaders are expected to agree that China presents a security risk at their annual summit in Brussels, the first time that the traditionally Russia-focused military alliance will have asserted it needs to respond to Beijing’s growing power.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, promised ahead of a meeting that will be attended by Joe Biden that China “will feature in the communique in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before”.

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French nuclear firm trying to fix ‘performance issue’ at China plant

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EDF subsidiary reportedly warned of ‘imminent radiological threat’ at Taishan nuclear power plant

A French nuclear company has said it is working to resolve a “performance issue” at a plant it part-owns in China’s southern Guangdong province after an earlier report of a potential leak there.

Framatome, a subsidiary of the energy giant EDF, told Agence France-Presse news agency that it was “supporting resolution of a performance issue” at the plant. “According to the data available, the plant is operating within the safety parameters,” it said, adding that an extraordinary meeting of the power plant’s board had been called “to present all the data and the necessary decisions”.

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Why the world’s most fertile fishing ground is facing a ‘unique and dire’ threat

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China’s Pacific fishing fleet has grown by 500% since 2012 and is taking huge quantities of tuna

  • Read more of our Pacific Plunder series here

Since long before the steel-hulled fishing boats from foreign countries arrived in the South Pacific its people have had their own systems for sharing the ocean’s catches.

In the New Zealand colony of Tokelau, in the middle of the region, the 1,400 people living on its three atolls practise a system called inati, which ensures every household gets fish.

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G7 leaders seek right balance in dealing with their China dilemma

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Analysis: can the west confront Beijing on trade and human rights and cooperate on the climate crisis?

• G7 summit: latest news and reaction

In an extra-secure, 90-minute session, with the phones and wifi cut off, all designed to block any eavesdropping by a prying foreign state, leaders of the G7, with glorious St Ives sunshine outside, wrestled with an issue that will probably dominate the rest of their political lives – China and the right balance between extreme competition and necessary cooperative coexistence.

Kurt Campbell, Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy director, describes the dilemma as presenting “complex coexistence paradigms”, something of which he says the US has had little previous experience.

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Scott Morrison denied one-on-one with Joe Biden as Boris Johnson joins meeting

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Labor’s Penny Wong says it’s disappointing the Australian prime minister did not secure a private meeting with the US president

Scott Morrison has met with Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit and agreed to work closely on challenges in the increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region including China.

Regional issues dominated the Australian prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with the US president late on Saturday – but the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, also attended in what became a trilateral engagement.

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