Month: February 2022

Olympics Schedule Tonight: Watch Skiing and Women’s Hockey

Chin@Strategy

The U.S. broadcast coverage of the 2022 Winter Games continues on Wednesday with medal events in Alpine skiing and women’s hockey, as curling continues. All times are Eastern. FREESTYLE SKIING The qualification round in women’s halfpipe will air live at 8:30 p.m. on USA Network and Peacock, with a portion also airing live on NBC. Brita Sigourney, the 2018 Olympic bronze medalist, will lead the American group of contenders with Hanna Faulhaber. Eileen Gu of China, who won silver in the slopestyle event, is also a strong medal contender. The…

Scott Morrison calls Labor MP a ‘Manchurian candidate’ in extraordinary scenes in parliament – video

Chin@Strategy

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison branded deputy Labor leader Richard Marles a ‘Manchurian candidate’ amid extraordinary scenes in question time on Wednesday. Morrison then withdrew the slur, which infers that a politician is being used as a puppet by an enemy power. Morrison also cited a speech by Marles in Beijing in 2019 calling for Australia and China to strengthen ties. Australia’s domestic spy chief, Mike Burgess, told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday night that the weaponisation of national security is ‘not helpful to us’. It is the second forthright public…

What Does China’s Horn of Africa Envoy Mean for Its Non-Intervention Principle?

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Advertisement A month ago, during a visit to Eritrea, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the sudden announcement that Beijing will create the position of a new peace and security envoy specifically for the Horn of Africa (HOA). Wang framed the announcement as an “Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa.” Does the appointment mean Beijing is finally shifting its long held non-interventionist stance when it comes to peace and security in other countries? After all, other permanent United Nations Security Council members such as the U.S., U.K.,…

Omicron Reveals Hong Kong’s Covid Dilemma

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — The scenes were straight out of China’s coronavirus playbook. Armies of workers, deployed to lock down residents. Plans to erect a massive makeshift hospital. And on Wednesday, a command from Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, plastered across local front pages: “Make controlling the epidemic as soon as possible an overwhelming priority.” The site of the latest outbreak, though, was not mainland China, but neighboring Hong Kong. And unlike on the mainland, where the government’s lofty language has been followed by quick results, no such relief is…

Politicising national security ‘not helpful’, Asio spy chief says as Scott Morrison ramps up attack

Chin@Strategy

Australia’s domestic spy chief, Mike Burgess, has declared the weaponisation of national security is “not helpful to us” after extraordinary scenes in federal parliament where Scott Morrison labelled a senior Labor frontbencher a “Manchurian candidate”. With Morrison ramping up the partisan rhetoric about risks to Australia’s sovereignty, the Asio director general told the ABC on Wednesday night the risk of foreign interference was “equal opportunity”. These risks affected all members of parliament, he told the 7.30 program, “so it doesn’t go after one particular party or the other”. Asked whether…

Xi Urges Hong Kong to Get Control as COVID-19 Cases Surge

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Advertisement Coronavirus patients lay in hospital beds or open-air tens amid record numbers of infections as Hong Kong doggedly adheres to its “zero-COVID” strategy, and China’s leader Xi Jinping said the local government’s “overriding task” was to control the situation. Hong Kong is facing its worst outbreak of the pandemic, topping 2,000 new COVID-19 cases each day this week. The city government has already instituted strict rules banning gatherings of more than two households. But health care facilities are beginning to overflow, and the city’s Caritas Medical Center was forced…

Taiwan’s Tsai Lifts Import Ban on Food From Nuclear Disaster-Hit Area of Japan

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement On February 9, the Tsai administration in Taiwan announced the lifting of a ban on food imports from prefectures of Japan affected by the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The move was not exactly unexpected, taking place after weeks of speculation. The Fukushima food import ban has long been a stumbling block to closer economic relations between Taiwan and Japan, and the Tsai administration’s move to lift the ban is broadly viewed as angling for admittance to the Japan-led CPTPP. At the same time, lifting the ban would open up the…