Imprisoned Vietnamese activist Nguyen Nang Tinh has been awarded the Le Dinh Luong Human Rights Award 2022. The annual prize is presented by the U.S.-based Vietnam Reform Revolution Party, or Viet Tan, to individuals and organizations who advocate human rights and raise awareness of rights violations in Vietnam. This year’s theme was “defending sovereignty against threats from China.” Nguyen Nang Tinh was a music lecturer at a college in Nghe An province on Vietnam’s North Central Coast when he was arrested in May 2019. He is currently serving an 11-year prison…
Day: December 11, 2022
China preparing fresh pretext to practise future attacks, says Taiwan foreign minister
Taiwan’s government believes China is preparing to find another “pretext for practising their future attack” on the island, its foreign minister has said, after a record-breaking year of military threats and incursions. Joseph Wu also suggested cross-strait communications may diminish even further now that Xi Jinping has secured his third term, with last month’s extraordinary political purges of rival Communist party members severing the few unofficial ties remaining. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian in Taipei, Wu said the Chinese military threat was “getting more serious than ever”, with…
Your Monday Briefing: The World Cup Semifinals Loom
Get ready for the semifinals Four countries will compete in the World Cup semifinals this week, after a weekend of surprises sent two favorites and two underdogs to the next round. Argentina will play Croatia tomorrow, and France will play Morocco on Wednesday. Argentina is driven by the belief that winning this World Cup is Lionel Messi’s undeniable destiny. But Croatia has its own undeniable sense of purpose after beating Brazil, a top contender. France knocked England out to advance. Morocco upset Portugal to become the first country in Africa…
UK to downgrade commitment to human rights for close diplomatic ties
The UK will target a group of about two dozen middle-level countries for long-term diplomatic partnerships in what marks a downgrade of a commitment to human rights as a prerequisite for close relations with the UK. The new policy being outlined in a speech by the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is an attempt to set realistic ambitions and criteria for Britain’s future relations post-Brexit. It is an implicit admission that the phrase “global Britain”, coined by Boris Johnson, may have set expectations that British diplomatic resources and status cannot match.…
Amid growing discontent, a jump in the number of Chinese seeking to move to Canada
The number of Chinese applying to emigrate to Canada rose 15 percent during the July-September quarter, the latest indication of widespread public dissatisfaction with life in China, particularly under the harsh anti-virus restrictions of the past three years that have hamstrung economic growth and curbed individual freedoms. Canada’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship received 9,925 applications from Chinese people for permanent residency during the third quarter, up 15 percent from the same quarter of 2021. The exodus, mostly of middle-class families and high-earning corporate professionals who have the wherewithal to…
In Hostage Diplomacy, It’s Often the Hostage-Takers Who Pay
Brittney Griner’s release, nearly a year after Russian authorities detained her, is once more forcing a difficult question in Washington and other capitals. What is the least bad option in dealing with hostage diplomacy? The practice, which has grown somewhat more common in recent years, involves imprisoning a foreigner, usually on spurious or exaggerated charges, for the purpose of extracting concessions from that person’s government. For the victim’s government, giving in risks encouraging hostile states to take more hostages. But holding out prolongs the hostage’s suffering, as well as sending…
Japan’s Ispace Launches World’s First Commercial Moon Lander
TOKYO — A Japanese space startup launched a spacecraft to the moon Sunday after several delays, a step toward what would be a first for the nation and for a private company. Ispace Inc’s HAKUTO-R mission took off without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. More than a hundred people at a viewing party in Tokyo roared in applause when the rocket fired and lifted into the dark skies. “I’m so happy. After repeated delays, it’s good that we…
US Keeps Eye on China’s Space Activities for Potential Risks
BEIJING — The U.S. is closely monitoring Chinese activities that potentially threaten American assets in space as debris rapidly accumulates in low Earth orbit, the head of United States military operations in space said Friday. Commander of U.S. Space Command Army Gen. James Dickinson also cheered the overwhelming passage in the United Nations of a resolution that countries not conduct direct-ascent antisatellite tests that create vast fields of space debris, which endanger satellites and space stations. Of the four countries that have conducted such ASAT tests, the United States was…
Economists hail end to zero Covid in China but huge human toll is feared
Beijing’s abrupt dismantling of zero-Covid controls has been welcomed by economists, even as the country braces itself for the human impact of letting the disease spread through a vulnerable population. The leadership’s abrupt U-turn on how it handles the pandemic appears to have been triggered by protests against controls that began last month, a nationwide show of discontent on a scale China had not seen in decades. But that unrest came after growing concern about the toll that isolation and regular harsh lockdowns were having on the country’s economy. China…
New US B-21 stealth bomber heightens strike gap with China – but missiles may help close it
The US did not disclose specifications of the plane, and the dramatic fashion in which it was unveiled – backlit by blue light that kept many parts of the bomber hidden in shadow – avoided giving away too many clues about its specifications. Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said: “The B-21 is 21st century in every sense, with superior stealth, avionics, sensors and propulsion. It’s based around open architecture, so … it can be easily upgraded both in terms of software and hardware. Advertisement…