Category Archives: China

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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Chaos at Shanghai airport as thousands are tested for Covid – video

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Chaotic scenes played out at Shanghai airport on Sunday as thousands of people were corralled into a car park after a snap decision to test everyone for coronavirus. 

Footage posted on social media shows officials wearing white suits containing crowds of people at Shanghai Pudong International airport after several people tested positive for Covid-19

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Trump’s US investment ban aims to cement tough-on-China legacy

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Move is latest chapter in deteriorating relationship with Beijing and improvement under Joe Biden is unlikely

Donald Trump has banned US investment in a further 89 Chinese companies, and reportedly sent a navy admiral to Taiwan, as he seeks to secure a tough-on-China foreign policy legacy.

Multiple media outlets have reported plans by the Trump administration for a series of confrontations with China before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, and the moves were largely expected. Foreign policy and political analysts believe Trump wants to leave a legacy of being tough on China, while simultaneously conducting a “scorched earth” policy on his way out of the White House.

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World’s powerful nations must not force allies into ‘binary choices’, Scott Morrison says

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Prime minister says diplomatic difficulties Australia is navigating are ‘a foretaste’ for others around the world

Scott Morrison has used a speech to the British Policy Exchange to call for a more nuanced appreciation of national interest, and more flexibility, when countries pursue relationships with America and China, because “stark choices are in no one’s interests”.

In a section of his speech outlining the challenges of navigating Australia’s fraught relationship with China in an era of escalating geopolitical competition, Morrison on Monday night said “greater latitude will be required from the world’s largest powers to accommodate the individual interests of their partners and allies” because “we all need a bit more room to move”.

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Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong faces jail after guilty plea over police HQ protests

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Joshua Wong urges everyone to ‘hang in there, add oil’ as he, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam are taken away ahead of sentencing next week

Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam face the prospect of jail after pleading guilty to charges relating to protests outside a police station last year.

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, where they face a penalty of up to five years in prison. Wong said he expected to be jailed.

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Head of Tibet government-in-exile visits White House for first time in six decades

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The visit by Lobsang Sangay, president of the Central Tibetan administration, could further infuriate Beijing

The head of the Tibetan government in exile has visited the White House for the first time in six decades, a move that could further infuriate China, which has accused the US of trying to destabilise the region.

Lobsang Sangay, the President of the Central Tibetan administration (CTA), was invited to Washington to meet officials on Friday, the CTA said. “This unprecedented meeting perhaps will set an optimistic tone for CTA participation with US officials and be more formalised in the coming years,” said the CTA, which is based in India’s Dharamshala.

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Hackers ‘try to steal Covid vaccine secrets in intellectual property war’

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Agencies point finger at state-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea

State-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are engaged in concerted attempts to steal coronavirus vaccine secrets in what security experts describe as “an intellectual property war”.

They accuse hostile-state hackers of trying to obtain trial results early and seize sensitive information about mass production of drugs, at a time when a range of vaccines are close to being approved for the public.

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Australia demands China explain why it has been singled out on trade restrictions

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Australia’s trade minister says China should clarify why other nations maintained workable relations despite differences

China should explain why it appears to have singled out Australia with a range of import restrictions that have disrupted trade flows and undermined trust in the economic relationship, the Australian trade minister has said.

With Australia and its largest trading partner locked in a stalemate over how to end the tensions, Simon Birmingham also used a television interview on Sunday to accuse the Chinese embassy in Canberra of taking a number of unhelpful actions this year.

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Human rights must not be ‘trampled’ in global rush for PPE, say MPs

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Calls come after Guardian finds UK sourced PPE from factories in China where North Koreans work in modern slavery

MPs and experts in the procurement of personal protective equipment have said human rights must not be “trampled” in the rush to secure PPE for frontline workers via global supply chains.

The calls come after a Guardian investigation found evidence that the British government had sourced PPE from factories in China where hundreds of North Korean women have been secretly working in conditions of modern slavery.

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Australia’s delivery deaths: the riders who never made it and the families left behind

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Three food delivery riders recently died on the job, and their families are left with uncertain futures, and many questions

Chow Khai Shien died three days before the Melbourne lockdown lifted, holding someone else’s food.

He had been in Australia for five years, having arrived from Malaysia at the age of 31. First he was a student, then a chef, working part-time in a restaurant inside a casino. When the pandemic descended, like many other people around the world, he turned to food delivery – ferrying burgers and chips, burritos, and pizzas, across the city on a small motorised scooter. The car hit him on the corner of King and La Trobe streets at 7pm on a Saturday night.

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China to Australia: stop treating us as a threat or we won’t pick up the phone

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Exclusive: Beijing ministers won’t speak to counterparts until Canberra discards ‘cold war mentality’, embassy says

Chinese government ministers won’t start answering phone calls from their Australian counterparts unless Canberra stops treating Beijing as a strategic threat, a senior embassy official has warned.

China is urging the Morrison government to make a clear decision on whether it sees Beijing as a “threat” or an “opportunity”, setting this up as a key precondition for resuming ministerial-level talks, which have been frozen since early this year.

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UK sourced PPE from factories secretly using North Korean slave labour

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Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds evidence that Chinese PPE factories supplying UK government are breaking UN sanctions

The British government has sourced PPE from factories in China where hundreds of North Korean women have been secretly working in conditions of modern slavery, according to evidence uncovered by the Guardian.

The Guardian’s findings indicate that hundreds of thousands of protective coveralls ordered for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have come from factories using North Korean labour in the Chinese city of Dandong.

The three-month investigation has also found evidence of North Korean labour being used in factories exporting PPE to the US, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Myanmar.

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China says Five Eyes alliance will be ‘poked and blinded’ over Hong Kong stance

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Foreign ministry rejects calls by western security grouping to reinstate ousted pro-democracy lawmakers

China has rejected criticism by the Five Eyes alliance of its Hong Kong policy, saying it “should face up to the reality” that the former British colony has been returned to China.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was responding to a statement on Hong Kong issued by the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which together make up an intelligence partnership known as the Five Eyes.

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Hong Kong breached bill of rights over police scrutiny, court rules

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Amid ongoing unrest, judge calls for establishment of independent complaints system

The Hong Kong government breached its bill of rights on protection from torture and cruel treatments by failing to provide an independent mechanism for complaints about police, the region’s high court has ruled.

The finding comes as a report by international experts who quit a Hong Kong police brutality inquiry last year said officers’ crowd-control tactics had radicalised protesters and worsened perceptions of the force’s legitimacy.

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China warns Australia and Japan over ‘confrontational’ new defence pact

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Australian ministers urge dialogue to resolve dispute as Beijing says countries may pay ‘corresponding price’

Australia and Japan will “pay a corresponding price” if their new defence pact threatens China’s security, Chinese state media has warned, as Scott Morrison insisted the deal should not cause any concerns to Beijing.

The state-run Global Times newspaper declared the new agreement “accelerates the confrontational atmosphere in the Asia-Pacific region” and was aimed against China.

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