The letter was effusively polite, the allegations anything but. “We have the honour to address you,” the seven United Nations special rapporteurs began their correspondence to the head of Jiangsu Guotai Guosheng garment factory in China’s Xinjiang province. The 2021 letter then detailed allegations of brutal working conditions for members of China’s Uyghur minority, reportedly forcibly transported hundreds of kilometres and arbitrarily detained for re-education and forced labour. “Workers are reportedly required to work in fenced-in factories … allegedly exposed to intimidation, coercion, threats, and restriction on their freedom of…
Tag: Australia news
‘Diplomatic knife fight’ over PNG enters new phase with deepening Australia defence deal
As Papua New Guinea prepares to mark 50 years as an independent nation next month, the country will sign a defence treaty with Australia, binding it closer again to its former colonial overseer. The treaty will allow Papua New Guinea nationals to gain Australian citizenship by serving in its defence forces, deepen defence cooperation, and give both countries’ militaries greater access to each other’s bases. “Our security and prosperity is entwined with their security and prosperity: this defence treaty will take that to an even higher level,” Australia’s minister for…
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Ted Hui reportedly granted asylum in Australia
The former pro-democracy Hong Kong legislator Ted Hui, who is wanted by authorities in the Chinese city, has been granted asylum in Australia, he said in a social media post, calling on Canberra to do more for those who remain jailed. The special administrative region, handed back to China by the UK in 1997, has seen dissent quashed since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law following huge and at times violent pro-democracy protests that erupted in 2019. Hui, a high-profile participant at the time who has since resettled in…
What is Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door, the Buddhist group at the centre of an alleged spy case in Australia?
A controversial Buddhist organisation, at the centre of an alleged Chinese espionage case in Australia, has raised concerns about Beijing keeping tabs on Chinese diaspora overseas. Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door is an international Buddhist organisation with multiple chapters in Australia. This month, a Chinese-born woman was charged with reckless foreign interference, accused of spying on the group’s Australian branches and its members on behalf of the Chinese Communist party’s intelligence organs. Australian police have said the investigation is ongoing and more people could be charged. Guan Yin Citta practises…
Penny Wong complained to China about intimidation of exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, complained about the targeted intimidation of exiled pro-democracy campaigners from Hong Kong directly to her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during a bilateral meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The July meeting was the first face-to-face discussion between the pair since two Hong Kong activists wanted for alleged national security crimes were subjected to anonymous letters offering Australian neighbours $203,000 to inform on them. The letters are now being investigated by the countering foreign interference taskforce, which is led by Australia’s federal police and the domestic intelligence…
Schwartz Media journalists banned from 7am podcast after Gaza episode prompts negative comments | Weekly Beast
Schwartz Media, publisher of the Saturday Paper, the Monthly and the Quarterly Essay, recently sold its 7am podcast to Solstice Media, with the promise its stable of journalists would still appear on the popular show. But just a month out from the deal, the Schwartz journalists have been told they can no longer talk on the podcast. The first episode published by the new owners was about Palestinians who were killed as they waited for aid, and a later Gaza-related episode interviewed the executive officer at the Jewish Council of…
Scott Morrison tells US Australia risks going to sleep on China threat after diplomatic ‘charm and flattery’
The Chinese Communist party hopes Western democracies “go to sleep on the threat” it poses to the international order, former prime minister Scott Morrison has told a congressional committee in the US. In a forthright appearance before the hawkish US House of Representatives select committee on the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist party, Morrison said China had changed diplomatic tack after he lost the 2022 election to Anthony Albanese. “This included abandoning their economic and diplomatic bullying and coercion for more inductive engagement, laced with…
Australia politics live: Australia joins 24 countries to demand immediate end to Gaza war
<gu-island name="KeyEventsCarousel" priority="feature" deferuntil="visible" props="{"keyEvents":[{"id":"687e2ff98f083f75bfb4ebef","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The ABC 7.30 program host, Sarah Ferguson, pressed Albanese on what he would say if the US president, Donald Trump, where to question him on Australia’s response if China were to attack Taiwan. ","elementId":"b2b6b68a-e4cf-4abc-ab49-d00d32440943"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The questions has emerged as part of Washington’s review of the Aukus pact and the request about Australia’s thinking is understood to have been made by an under secretary of defence, Elbridge Colby. ","elementId":"2aff9adf-b338-460c-9d2e-06612d04ae82"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" Ferguson asked what Albanese would say if he was pressed on that question. The PM replied: ","elementId":"348c37ed-f611-4f65-b701-5ae0be42beb5"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement","html":"…
Scott Morrison to testify before US House panel on China
The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison will testify at a US House panel hearing next week about countering China’s “economic coercion against democracies,” the committee said on Friday. Rahm Emanuel, the former US ambassador to Japan, will also testify before the House select committee on China. Relations with China, already rocky after Australia banned Huawei from its 5G broadband network in 2018, cooled further in 2020 after the Morrison government called for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 virus. China responded by imposing tariffs on Australian…
Albanese says Coalition failed to have call with Beijing for years as opposition criticises ‘indulgent’ China trip
Anthony Albanese has sniped back at the opposition’s criticism of his “indulgent” six-day visit to China, pointing out the former Coalition government failed to hold a single phone call with the major trading partner for years. The prime minister has spent this week touring the country with stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu amid a period of geopolitical instability and escalating trade hostilities between the US and its trading partners. Albanese met with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the premier, Li Qiang, to discuss a number of issues, including…