Category Archives: China

Could China replace Australian iron ore with metal from Africa?

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Analysis: Amid rising trade tensions, Chinese interests are keen to develop a high-quality deposit in Guinea. Analysts warn any restrictions on Australian sales to China would ‘send shockwaves through the market’

Across China and around the clock, furnaces fuelled by Australian iron ore pump out the steel the country needs to build its way out of the coronavirus downturn.

But as China’s trade war with Australia has become louder, working its way from unofficial stoppages to swingeing tariffs on barley and wine, so too have rumblings that the country may slow or end its use of Australian ore.

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China to collect first moon rocks since 1970s after successful probe landing

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Chang’e-5 spacecraft completes 112-hour journey from Earth, according to Beijing’s space agency

A Chinese probe sent to the moon to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades has successfully landed, according to Beijing’s space agency.

China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon.

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Australian politics live: Chinese embassy accuses Canberra of overreacting to tweet on Afghan killings

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Embassy official dismisses ‘rage and roar’ over tweet; new WA border rules not requiring quarantine to start on 8 December; Paul Fletcher complains to ABC chair about Four Corners program. Follow latest updates

And that’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks as always for reading, we’ll be back tomorrow, with Amy Remeikis at the helm in the morning.

Here’s what happened today:

And in further weather news, severe thunderstorms are set to hit Sydney in a few minutes. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of damaging winds and large hailstones.

⚡Detailed Severe Thunderstorm Warning⚡
for DAMAGING WINDS and LARGE HAILSTONES. Forecast to affect Hornsby, Parramatta and Richmond by 7:05 pm and Sydney City, Sydney Olympic Park, Mona Vale and waters off Bondi Beach by 7:35 pm.
⚠️Warnings: https://t.co/qF3XejM6Tv pic.twitter.com/qnSGNfqZND

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France and New Zealand join Australia’s criticism of Chinese government tweet

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Former diplomat urges more countries to stand against ‘coercion’ from Beijing, as Chinese state media says Australia is ‘treating China’s goodwill with evil’

France and New Zealand have joined Australia in criticising the Chinese government for its inflammatory tweet about Australian soldiers, as a former senior diplomat called for more countries to take a stand against Beijing’s “coercion”.

The tensions between China and Australia showed no sign of abating on Tuesday, with the Chinese embassy in Canberra accusing the Morrison government of overreacting to the social media post and of stoking the issue for domestic political purposes.

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Asian manufacturing boom offers hope for swifter global recovery from Covid

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Markets respond as manufacturing in China and South Korea grows at fastest pace in a decade

Hopes that the world will bounce back from the ravages of coronavirus in the new year have been buoyed by strong growth in output from Asia’s huge manufacturing centres, led by an accelerating post-pandemic boom in China.

China’s factory activity expanded at the fastest pace in a decade in November, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday, in the latest sign that the world’s second-largest economy is recovering to pre-pandemic levels.

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‘Stealing our culture’: South Koreans upset after China claims kimchi as its own

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Agriculture ministry drawn in to row after state media prompts backlash with claims that China leads global kimchi industry

Social media users in China and South Korea are embroiled in another row, this time over the provenance of kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish that most people recognise as an essential part of the Korean diet.

Not, though, in China, where state media have sparked an online backlash after one of the country’s fermented dishes received certification from the International Organisation for Standardisation [ISO].

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Australian PM demands China apologise for ‘repugnant’ tweet with fake image of soldier

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Scott Morrison says China should be ‘totally ashamed’ of digitally altered image depicting Australian soldier posted by foreign ministry

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has demanded the Chinese government apologise and take down a “repugnant” foreign ministry tweet that depicted an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a civilian in Afghanistan.

As the outrage over the digitally altered image threatened to sink already tense relations between the two countries to a new low, Morrison said on Monday the Chinese government “should be totally ashamed of this post”, which he said diminished Beijing on the world stage.

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Huawei: UK bans new 5G network equipment from September

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Digital secretary says he is setting ‘clear path for complete removal of high risk vendors’ from 5G networks

Telecoms providers must stop installing Huawei equipment in the UK’s 5G networks from next September, the government has said.

The digital secretary, Oliver Dowden, set out a roadmap to remove high-risk vendors ahead of the telecommunications (security) bill coming before parliament.

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Exiled bookseller: ‘If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place is Taiwan’

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After fleeing Hong Kong for Taiwan, Lam Wing-kee speaks of the danger the island faces and the ordeal of his detention in China

Lam Wing-kee leans forward in his chair, answering quickly and sharply to issue a warning to the people of his new home, Taiwan. “Be ready now,” he says.

“We should be more alert as citizens, we should get ready,” says the 64-year-old Hongkonger. “If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place, I feel, is Taiwan.”

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WTO complaint ‘next step’ in tariff dispute between Australia and China, trade minister says

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Trade conflicts threaten global confidence as world economy struggles to recover from pandemic, Simon Birmingham says

The Australian government is continuing its tough talk against Beijing’s trade impositions with the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, giving the strongest indication yet that Canberra will take its complaints to the World Trade Organization.

China first announced it believed Australian wine was being dumped in China in August and last week the Chinese ministry of commerce announced tariffs on Australian wine products that would double or triple prices making export trade “unviable”.

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‘Piles of cash at home’: Hong Kong leader says US sanctions mean she has no bank account

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Carrie Lam says she is paid in cash and calls US sanctions imposed over security crackdown ‘unjustifiable’

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she keeps “piles of cash” at home because she has no bank account after the United States imposed sanctions on her in response to the crackdown on free speech and political freedoms in the city.

Lam was targeted, along with 14 other senior city officials, in the toughest US action on Hong Kong yet since Beijing imposed the new law on the territory in late June.

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Encrypted apps and false names: new Taiwan book club takes no chances

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Amid Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong, publisher says joining clubs to discuss free speech and democracy has again become an act of resistance

In the early 1950s in Taiwan, 19-year-old Tsai Kun-lin was arrested and jailed after joining a book club. The young man spent more than a decade on Green Island, building the prison that held him as a political enemy of the authoritarian rulers who would hold Taiwan under martial law until 1987.

Decades later, a 90-year-old Tsai is living in Taiwan’s thriving democracy, but says a book club has once again become an act of resistance.

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Will everyone in the world have access to a Covid vaccine? – video explainer

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The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise but it is premature to say the end of the pandemic is nigh. Several rich countries have signed a 'frenzy of deals' that could prevent many poor nations from getting access to immunisation until at least 2024. Also, many drug firms are potentially refusing to waive patents and other intellectual property rights in order to secure exclusive rights to any cure.

Michael Safi, the Guardian's international correspondent, explains why 'vaccine nationalisation' could scupper global efforts to kill the virus and examines what is being done to tackle the issue

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Xi Jinping calls to congratulate Joe Biden on election win

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Chinese president told future counterpart he hoped two countries would ‘uphold sprit of non-conflict, focus on cooperation’

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US election, leaving just a handful of world leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who have not recognised Biden’s win.

Chinese state media said that in a phone call Xi told Biden he hoped the two countries would “uphold the spirit of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, [to] focus on cooperation, manage differences, advance the healthy and stable development of China-US ties, and join hands with other countries and the international community to promote the noble cause of world peace and development”.

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Australia’s foreign affairs chief cautions China against resorting to ‘coercion’

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Frances Adamson urges Beijing to reflect on how its increasingly assertive stance is being received by other countries

Australia’s foreign affairs chief has warned Beijing against resorting to “pressure or coercion”, declaring China would be wrong to assume it was now so powerful it could set the terms of its engagement with the world.

Amid heightened tensions between Australia and its largest trading partner, Frances Adamson used a major speech on Wednesday night to urge the Chinese government to reflect on how its increasingly assertive actions would be received by other countries.

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‘Remarkably effective’: Carrie Lam praises Hong Kong national security law

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Chief executive says in annual address the city’s problems driven by ‘external forces’ and pandemic

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has defended the crackdown on opposition by her government and Beijing, and praised the widely criticised national security law – while seeking to blame the city’s woes on foreign interference and the pandemic.

Lam’s annual policy address – which was postponed from October to allow for further consultation with Beijing – was delivered on Wednesday to a legislative council without its opposition members after the mass resignation of the pro-democracy caucus.

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Pope says for first time that China’s Uighurs are ‘persecuted’

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Francis mentions plight of Muslim minority in China, alongside Rohingya and Yazidi, in new book

Pope Francis has for the first time called China’s Muslim Uighurs a “persecuted” people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years.

In the wide-ranging book Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, he said: “I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi” in a section where he also talks about persecuted Christians in Islamic countries.

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China launches Chang’e-5 mission to bring back rocks from moon

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Lunar landing is due in about eight days and entire mission is scheduled to last 23 days

China has launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon – the first such attempt by any country since the 1970s.

The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am Beijing time on Tuesday from Wenchang space launch centre on the island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.

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Hong Kong activists face jail after guilty plea – video

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Pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Ivan Lam and Agnes Chow arrived at West Kowloon magistrates courts to face charges related to illegal assembly stemming from a protest last year in Hong Kong.

The trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, but after pleading guilty they were taken away ahead of a sentencing hearing on Wednesday next week.

The trio of high-profile pro-democracy activists and former politicians, were facing multiple charges over an unauthorised protest outside police headquarters in June last year, and inciting others to take part.

They face a penalty of up to five years in prison 

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Shanghai Covid outbreak ‘traced to cargo from North America’

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Airport staff tested and flights cancelled as officials say two cargo handlers were first cases

A coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai has been traced to two cargo handlers who cleaned a container that had just arrived from North America, Chinese health officials have said.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s Pudong International airport, one of the world’s busiest transport hubs, amid chaotic scenes caused by a sudden decision to test airport staff on Sunday.

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