Local governments in China approved more new coal power in the first three months of 2023 than in the whole of 2021, according to official documents. The approvals, analysed by Greenpeace, reveal that between January and March this year, at least 20.45 gigawatts of coal power was approved, up from 8.63GW in the same period in 2022. In the whole of 2021, 18GW of coal was approved. A Chinese Communist party (CCP) five-year plan from 2016 had placed a heavy emphasis on reducing the use of coal and developing clean…
Day: April 23, 2023
Ashes to ocean: sea burials become China’s solution to crowded cemeteries
Xiao Hu never expected to make a living from the dead. For years she worked in her family business offering boat tours to tourists visiting Zhoushan, an archipelago off the east coast of China’s mainland. But in recent years her proximity to the sea, and to the temple-dotted hills of Mount Putou – one of Chinese Buddhism’s four sacred mountains – started to attract a different type of clientele. The first time that a customer asked to use one of the boats to scatter their loved one’s remains into the…
Baltics Condemn China Envoy’s Stance on Ex-Soviet Nations
Helsinki — The three Baltic states have strongly condemned comments by China’s envoy to France, who appeared to suggest in a recent French television interview that former Soviet republics aren’t sovereign nations. The foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in separate announcements late Saturday deemed statements by Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, as unacceptable. In a recent interview with the French news channel LCI, he was asked if he thought that the Crimean Peninsula belongs to Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most…
James Cleverly on taking a new approach to foreign policy – and belting out the Beatles with Blinken
In the early hours of Friday morning New Zealand time, James Cleverly was holed up in the British high commission in Wellington calling international partners about the mounting crisis in Sudan. It didn’t take long for him to realise that he would have to cut short his visit and make the long journey back to London. Emergency meetings were already under way in Whitehall preparing for the evacuation of British diplomats from Khartoum. The clashes, which began last weekend as a power struggle between rival military factions, have derailed a…
Vietnam’s ideal position is strategic equidistance from the US and China
By all indications, the Southeast Asian nation is determined to stick to a policy of “multi-alignment”, delicately maintaining robust ties with multiple powers without sacrificing Hanoi’s strategic autonomy in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment. There is a reason a cornerstone of contemporary Vietnam’s national security strategy are the “four noes”: no siding with one power against another; no hosting foreign military bases; no treaty-based military alliances with foreign powers; and no deployment of coercive force or threat of war as an instrument of foreign relations. Advertisement Throughout the mid-20th century,…
Greece Welcomes Return of Chinese Travelers
Athens — With the peak tourism season setting in, Greece is bracing for a record number of arrivals and is welcoming back Chinese tourists. The warm feelings follow a period of discontent due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions placed on travelers from China for the past three years, and other issues. On the cobblestone streets of Athens, tavern owner Spiros Bairaktaris opens his arms wide open, welcoming news of what is already called the Chinese return. He says, “We await them with great love, from the bottom of our hearts. We…
Australia’s defence force is expected to get its biggest overhaul in decades. Here’s what we know so far
Australia’s national security environment is about to get a major shake-up. The defence strategic review ordered by the Albanese government – and what the government plans to do about it – will be publicly released on Monday in what is being touted as the biggest defence overhaul in nearly four decades. Ordered just 73 days into the Albanese government, the review was conducted by the former chief of defence Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK AFC and former Labor defence minister Prof Stephen Smith. They handed their completed review…
China’s Fujian aircraft carrier set for ‘new-type’ planes
Neither carrier features the Fujian’s signature catapult system, which allows planes to launch more frequently and carry more fuel and munitions. Instead the planes taking off from the older carriers rely on a ski-jump ramp, which also limits the number of planes that can be kept on the flight deck. 01:29 China launches the Fujian, the PLA Navy’s 3rd aircraft carrier The CCTV programme, broadcast on the eve of the navy’s 74th anniversary, did not go into specifics about what “new-type” aircraft could be launched from the Fujian, but said…
China urged to step up laser weapons development to keep pace with US
A laser beam can confuse a drone’s optical sensor, or burn a hole when its power is increased. The United States has been researching the technology since the 1960s and the country is a frontrunner in developing and using directed energy weapons. In 2014, the US navy installed its first laser weapon system, the AN/SEQ-3, on the USS Ponce for field tests that proved successful. Advertisement Last year the US navy installed its first permanent laser on its Arleigh Burke–class destroyer the Preble. Lockheed Martin, which developed the Helios laser…
Wealthy desert Hong Kong for Singapore, elsewhere amid political uncertainty
The number of high net worth individuals in Hong Kong has fallen by nearly 30% in recent years, as the city’s ranking as a destination for the wealthy drops several places amid an ongoing erosion of the city’s promised freedoms under Chinese rule. The number of millionaires living in Hong Kong fell by 27% between 2012 and 2023 to 129,000, as the city fell from fourth place globally to seventh place, immigration consultants Henley & Partners said in its World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023. Meanwhile, the number of rich people…