China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, will visit Australia for the first time in seven years, with next week’s trip being locked in just hours after Beijing offered a reprieve to Australian winemakers. China imposed tariffs of up to 200% on Australian wine at the height of the diplomatic dispute in 2020, alongside measures affecting a range of products including barley, red meat, seafood and coal. Australia has since been in the grips of a wine glut with an oversupply equivalent to more than 2.8bn bottles of wine after vintage last…
Tag: Australia news
News live: Turnbull says Australia ‘mugged by reality’ on Aukus deal as US due to cut submarine build; fears for missing WA travellers
From 13m ago ‘Mugged by reality’: former PM lashes Aukus submarine deal Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has lashed the Aukus pillar 1 submarine deal, arguing the US is producing half as many as needed and Australia has “abandoned our sovereignty in terms of submarines”. Speaking to ABC RN about the issue, Turnbull said: The US navy is trying to increase its submarine fleet actually to meet the rapid growth in the Chinese navy, in particular [with] submarines. To do that to meet its own requirements, it needs to double…
‘We need to go again’: Australian who led MH370 search joins calls for fresh effort to find plane
The man who led Australia’s search for MH370 has urged the Australian government to support any new effort to find the plane, which disappeared 10 years ago on Friday. On Sunday the Malaysian government said it was in talks with the US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to discuss a new search. The company says it is willing and able to return to the search, and has submitted a proposal to the Malaysian government. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 departed Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014, bound for Beijing with…
Chinese tourism to Australia still in the doldrums after pandemic travel bans
In the two weeks either side of lunar new year, Mandy Ho, who manages a hot air balloon company in Melbourne, has many balls in the air. Most mornings before dawn, when weather permits, her colleagues fly Chinese tourists from the vineyards of the Yarra Valley over Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to parkland on the city’s fringe. Interpreters make sure nothing is lost in translation. Ho has spent weeks preparing tourists and arranging buses to collect them from hotels. She’s already met some of them while running the company’s Mandarin smartphone…
Asio cleared of unlawfully luring Daniel Duggan back to Australia, agency chief Mike Burgess says
The spy agency Asio says it has been cleared by the intelligence watchdog of allegations of impropriety raised by the Australian citizen Daniel Duggan as he fights extradition to the US. Duggan, a former US marines pilot accused of training Chinese pilots to land fighter jets on aircraft carriers, had complained to the inspector general of intelligence and security (IGIS) about Asio’s role in securing his return to Australia from China. His legal team had raised concerns an “unlawful lure” – in the form of an Asio clearance for an…
Vogue China’s Margaret Zhang, youngest person appointed as an editor at magazine group, to step down
Three years after becoming the youngest person to hold an editor title at Vogue, Margaret Zhang is leaving her position as editorial director of Vogue China. The Australian-Chinese creative director announced her exit on Instagram today, writing: “As we kick off a transformative Year of the Dragon, I’m excited to announce that I have decided to wrap up with Vogue and jump into the next chapter of my career.” Zhang rose to prominence as a teenage fashion blogger in Sydney. By her early 20s, she had amassed over 1m followers…
Yang Hengjun will not appeal suspended death sentence in China, family says
Australian writer Yang Hengjun will not appeal against the suspended death sentence imposed by a Chinese court, with his family saying further legal challenges would be detrimental to his welfare. Yang was found guilty on espionage charges in China in February after spending five years in prison. He will still face the prospect of life behind bars at the end of a two-year suspended death sentence. In a letter written by Yang’s family and friends, they said they supported the imprisoned writer’s decision to waive his right to appeal. “There…
Australia detains alleged key player in North Korean tobacco smuggling scheme after US request
A Chinese national has been quietly arrested and detained in Australia for 11 months at the request of US authorities investigating an alleged tobacco smuggling conspiracy that generated an estimated A$1.1bn (US$700m) in revenue to North Korea. Jin Guanghua, 52, was arrested by the Australian federal police in Melbourne last March. Described in US court documents as an Australian resident, Jin was kept in custody in Melbourne for several months before being transferred to immigration detention while awaiting extradition. The Federal Bureau of Investigation alleges Jin and others conspired for…
Chinese hackers infiltrated plane, train and water systems for five years, US says
An advanced group of Chinese hackers taking aim at critical US infrastructure has been active for as long as half a decade, American and allied intelligence agencies said in a joint statement on Wednesday. The US National Security Agency, US cyber watchdog CISA, the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration said that the group known as Volt Typhoon had quietly burrowed into the networks of aviation, rail, mass transit, highway, maritime, pipeline, water and sewage organizations. None of the organizations were identified by name, but the statement said that US…
Papua New Guinea’s PM to address Australian parliament as Pacific security race with China builds
Australia will roll out the red carpet to the visiting Papua New Guinea prime minister, James Marape, amid efforts to stall China’s security talks with the Pacific country. Marape is due to arrive in Canberra on Wednesday before he addresses a joint sitting of the Australian parliament on Thursday – the first Pacific leader to be afforded this honour. Amid increasing competition for influence in the region, the Australian government will seek to build on the security agreement with PNG that Marape and Anthony Albanese signed just two months ago.…