The Australian trade minister is meeting with his Chinese counterpart for the first time in three years as Canberra continues to urge Beijing to remove tariffs and bans on key export sectors. Don Farrell, who was in Canberra for the resumption of parliament, is meeting virtually with the Chinese commerce minister, Wang Wentao, on Monday. The Australians were expected to use Monday’s meeting to push for the resumption of unimpeded trade. Canberra doesn’t believe the differences can be solved overnight, but sees the meeting as a step towards the goal.…
Day: February 5, 2023
Public Security Ministry orders detention of controversial academic
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has ordered the detention of the former director of the Southeast and North Asia Institute of Technology Research and Development following six months of house arrest. According to a post on its website on Feb. 2, the ministry’s Security Investigation Agency arrested Nguyen Son Lo because he “showed signs of continuing to commit crimes.” The ministry launched an investigation in July 2022, under the controversial Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code for “abusing freedom and democracy infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate…
US military searches territorial waters for Chinese spy balloon wreckage
The US military said it is searching for remnants of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down, in a dramatic spy saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations. The US navy is working to recover the balloon and its payload and the coast guard is providing security for the operation, general Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American aerospace defence command and US northern command said on Sunday. A successful recovery could give the United States insight into China’s spying capabilities, though US officials have downplayed the balloon’s impact…
With threats and intimidation, China coerces Uyghurs in Turkey to spy on each other
After Yasinjan and his family moved to Istanbul in 2016, the police back home in Xinjiang tried to keep in touch. They wanted to know all about the clientele at the modest barbershop he opened in the Zeytinburnu district, home to a large Uyghur immigrant population. The police contacted him on his phone. He refused to talk to them. They sent threats through his relatives. He ignored them. They imprisoned his father-in-law. He didn’t budge. Then, this January, the police tried something new: They sent him a customer. The nervous…
US Seeks Debris, Intel From Downed Chinese Spy Balloon
Debris recovery operations went into high gear in the United States, after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down Saturday. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains how the craft’s remains could help answer key questions about its purpose and shape a new phase of U.S.-Chinese relations. Video editing by Marcus Harton. VOA
Hong Kong’s Largest National Security Trial to Begin With 47 in Dock
Hong Kong — The trial of 47 of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy figures begins Monday, in the largest prosecution under a national security law that has crushed dissent in the city. The proceedings are expected to last more than four months, and the defendants may face up to life in prison, if convicted. Those on trial represent a cross-section of Hong Kong’s opposition, including legal scholar Benny Tai, former lawmakers Claudia Mo, Au Nok-hin and Leung Kwok-hung, and democracy activists Joshua Wong and Lester Shum. They are charged with…
China’s Oil Demand Bounce May Push Producers to Reconsider Output, IEA Says
Bangaluru, India — Oil producers may have to reconsider their output policies following a demand recovery in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, the International Energy Agency’s Executive Director Fatih Birol said Sunday. Demand in China, the world’s largest crude importer and No. 2 buyer of liquefied natural gas, has become the biggest uncertain factor in global oil and gas markets in 2023 as investors bet on the speed of its recovery after Beijing lifted COVID restrictions in December. “We expect about half of the growth in global oil demand…
Balloon Incident Reveals More Than Spying as Competition With China Intensifies
Of course, there is nothing new about superpowers spying on one another, even from balloons. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized surveillance of the Soviet Union by lofting cameras on balloons in the mid-1950s, flying them “over Soviet bloc countries under the guise of meteorological research,” according to an article published by the National Archives in 2009. It “yielded more protests from the Kremlin than it did useful intelligence,” the author, David Haight, an archivist at the Eisenhower Library, reported. With the advent of the first spy satellites, the balloons appeared…
Miss Universe Credits Filipino-Texas Family for Her Crown
New York — R’Bonney Gabriel is the first Filipina American to wear the Miss Universe crown in the pageant’s seven-decade history and, at 28, the oldest entrant ever crowned. Gabriel, the first American to win the contest since 2012, believes her success was shaped by her biracial background, which she describes as a combination of her “big, loud and fun” paternal Filipino family and her “charming, small and reserved” maternal Texan family. “The two different sides of my family really, really shaped me to be open-minded and realize people have…
China balloon: US searches in Atlantic for wreckage
The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mike Turner, said the Biden administration had not recognised the “urgency” of the situation, adding: “Clearly this was an attempt by China to gather information, to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile defence and nuclear weapon sites.” BBC