When Sunny* thinks back to March last year, she laughs ruefully at the ordeal. The 19-year-old Shanghai student spent that month locked in her dormitory, unable to shop for essentials or wash clothes, even banned from showering for two weeks over Covid fears. In April, the entire city locked down. It was the beginning of the chaos of 2022, as local Chinese authorities desperately tried to follow President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid decree while facing the most virulent strain of the virus yet: Omicron. “Everyone was panicking, no one was ready,”…
Month: January 2023
Pressure Mounts on ASEAN Chair Indonesia to Act on Myanmar
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — As Indonesia assumes the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for 2023, pressure is mounting on Jakarta to formalize an appropriate response to member Myanmar’s military – the Tatmadaw – which seized power from an elected government two years ago. Analysts said the descent into civil war had effectively annulled a much-touted ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus, but added that it had paved the way for Indonesian President Joko Widido to take a new, much stronger line against Tatmadaw chief…
Australian universities welcome snap decision by China to ban online studies
The Australian university sector has welcomed a snap Chinese government ban on citizens studying at foreign universities online. The chief executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson, said the move would encourage some 40,000 Chinese students to return to Australia but warned there would be logistical hurdles. “We will be working closely with government and industry to ensure universities can quickly respond to this influx and facilitate the safe return of students from China as well as students from other nations,” Jackson said on Sunday. China’s education ministry announced the ban…
‘Everything is fake’: how global crime gangs are using UK shell companies in multi-million pound crypto scams
A woman meets a man online. They flirt. Then, after a few weeks, they begin imagining a future together. Fast forward a few months and one of them has had their heart broken and been defrauded of their life savings. It sounds like a classic romance scam, but it isn’t. This is “pig butchering”: a brutal, elaborate and rapidly expanding form of organised crime, often involving criminal syndicates, modern-day slaves and victims around the world. Since it came to prominence in 2021, the fraud – which involves scammers grooming their…
New Zealand Roiled by Flash Floods, Landslides for Third Day
Sydney — Heavy rainfall hit New Zealand’s north island again on Sunday, causing landslides, flash floods and knocking out roads, with the death toll rising to four after a person who had been missing was confirmed dead. Battered by rain since Friday, Auckland — New Zealand’s largest city of 1.6 million people — remained under a state of emergency. The nation’s weather forecaster, MetService, warned of severe weather on Sunday and Monday for the north island. Intense rainfall could also cause surface and flash flooding, it said. The focus of…
Holiday Trips Within China Surge After COVID Curbs Lifted
Beijing — Lunar New Year holiday trips inside China surged 74% from last year after authorities scrapped COVID-19 travel curbs, state media reported Saturday, though the number of journeys was still only half of pre-pandemic levels. According to official data, the number of COVID deaths showed a weekly decline, however. Between January 20-26, a week that overlapped with six days of the holiday period, China registered 6,364 COVID-linked deaths, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday, compared to 12,658 a week earlier. Lunar New Year is the most…
Netherlands and Japan Said to Join U.S. in Curbing China’s Access to Chip Tech
WASHINGTON — The Netherlands and Japan, both makers of some of the world’s most advanced equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, agreed on Friday to join with the United States in barring some shipments of their most high-tech machinery to China, people familiar with the agreement said. The agreement, which followed high-level meetings with U.S. national security officials in Washington, will help expand the reach of sweeping restrictions issued unilaterally by the Biden administration in October on the kinds of semiconductor technology that can be shared with China. The countries did not…
Australia’s warming ties with China leave its Quad commitments in doubt
For India, the Doklam stand-off and Galwan valley clash disrupted peace maintained at its border with China for over 50 years. Since the clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the valley, there has been no interest on either side to dial things back to pre-Galwan days. With the troops of the two nations clashing with clubs and sticks as recently as December, the room for better relations has become limited. For Australia, the beef, barley and wine row, coupled with Beijing’s unofficial ban on its coal and lobster exports,…
‘Whale Meat’ Vending Machines Push Sales in Japan
YOKOHAMA, Japan — A Japanese whaling operator, after struggling for years to promote its products amid protests from conservationists, has found a new way to cultivate clientele and bolster sales: whale meat vending machines. The Kujira (Whale) Store, an unmanned outlet that recently opened in the port town of Yokohama near Tokyo, houses three machines for whale sashimi, whale bacon, whale skin and whale steak, as well as canned whale meat. Prices range from 1,000 yen ($7.70) to 3,000 yen ($23). The outlet features white vending machines decorated with cartoon…
UN Rights Chief Condemns Wholesale Repression of Human Rights in Myanmar
GENEVA — United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is condemning the increasing brutality and wholesale repression of Myanmar’s military leaders to maintain their iron grip on power. United Nations rights chief Volker Türk says Myanmar has plunged ever deeper into crisis since the military launched a coup against the country’s democratically elected government nearly two years ago, on February 1, 2021. Türk spokesman Jeremy Laurence says the country has undergone a wholesale regression in human rights. He says violence has spiraled out of control in total disregard…