The UK and other G7 countries are planning collective action against Russia and China if they threaten trade boycotts for political reasons, announcing a new body to deal with “economic coercion”. Rishi Sunak will urge “bold and pragmatic collective action” against hostile states that stop trading with other countries when they disagree with their geopolitical decisions. He will cite Russia’s stranglehold on European gas supplies last year as a situation that could have been met with a collective response. Other examples include China’s punitive tariffs on Australian wine after Canberra…
Tag: Japan
UK’s £1bn strategy for semiconductor industry lacks ambition, say critics
The UK government has announced an investment of up to £1bn in the domestic semiconductor industry, but has been criticised for declining to join the spending race that has seen the US and EU announce significantly bigger programmes. Labour accused the government of lacking ambition in its announcement, while one UK startup said the £1bn figure was less than the cost of one basic semiconductor plant. The UK’s long-awaited national semiconductor strategy would focus on the country’s existing strengths in the technology. Semiconductors, or microchips, are the “brains” of electronic…
Ukraine and China Will Dominate G7 Summit, but a New Threat Lurks: A.I.
President Biden began his foreshortened Asia trip on Thursday in Hiroshima, a city that devotes itself to reminding the world of what happens when a brutal war escalates into a nuclear one. There he prepared for discussions with his closest allies on two crucial issues: how to better arm Ukraine as it enters its counteroffensive against the Russian invaders, and how to slow, or halt, the downward spiral in relations with China. Both are now familiar topics to the leaders of the Group of 7 nations, who have grown far…
As G7 leaders start to arrive, Japan PM prepares push in Hiroshima for nuclear weapons pledge
The war in Ukraine and Chinese aggression towards Taiwan will dominate G7 discussions this week, but host Fumio Kishida is expected to carve out time to push for a pledge on nuclear weapons when leaders meet in Hiroshima, the first place on Earth targeted by an atomic bomb. The leaders began to arrive on Thursday, ahead of an expected visit on Saturday to the city’s Peace Memorial Museum, which contains exhibits showing the scale of the tragedy that unfolded after the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the morning of…
Rishi Sunak seeks to build stronger defence with Japan at Tokyo G7
Rishi Sunak will seek to build a stronger defence with Japan amid fears of China’s rising militarisation as he travels to Tokyo and Hiroshima for the G7 summit. The prime minister will be accompanied by his wife, Akshata Murty, on their first official visit since he entered No 10 for the meeting of leaders from the US, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy and the EU. Sunak is expected to unveil the Hiroshima accord, an agreement with Japan aimed at stepping up defence cooperation and improving supply chains, when he meets…
Leaders of Japan and South Korea Vow to Deepen Ties
The leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed on Sunday to press ahead with joint efforts to improve bilateral ties despite skeptics at home, declaring that historical differences should not prevent the two nations from working more closely to cope with the growing security challenges from North Korea and China. Before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan arrived in Seoul to meet President Yoon Suk Yeol and to nurture a fledgling détente, South Koreans had been waiting intently for what Mr. Kishida might say about Japan’s brutal colonial rule of…
‘Wolf warrior’ or entertainer? Outspoken Japanese envoy Shingo Yamagami has no regrets as he departs Australia
If an ambassador’s job is to win friends and influence people, Shingo Yamagami has done plenty of that. But Japan’s departing envoy to Australia has also lost friends and alienated others during his two years and four months in Australia. One former diplomat describes him as “an entertaining player but prone to kicking own-goals”. The Chinese ambassador, Xiao Qian, is firmly in the “not a fan” category – he has accused Yamagami of running a deliberate public campaign to sabotage China-Australia relations. Prime minister Anthony Albanese and Shingo Yamagami after…
Chizuko Ueno: the Japanese writer stoking China’s feminist underground
To find evidence that China’s feminist movement is gaining momentum – despite strict government censorship and repression – check bookshelves, nightstands and digital libraries. There, you might find a copy of one of Chizuko Ueno’s books. The 74-year-old Japanese feminist and author of Feminism from Scratch and Patriarchy and Capitalism has sold more than a million books in China, according to Beijing Open Book, which tracks sales. Of these, 200,000 were sold in January and February alone. Ueno, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo, was little known…
Wreck of Japanese Ship That Sank Carrying Australian POWs is Found
The wreck of a Japanese ship that sank in 1942 after it was torpedoed by an American submarine has been found, the Australian government said on Saturday. The ship was carrying hundreds of prisoners of war, most of them Australian, who all died, and the discovery resolves a painful episode in that country’s wartime history. A U.S. Navy submarine attacked the ship, the Montevideo Maru, in July 1942 as it traveled unescorted from Rabaul, a port in the Australian territory of New Guinea that had been captured by Japan earlier…
Lonely Cry for Action as China Locks Up Japanese Citizens on Spy Charges
Hideji Suzuki served six years in a Chinese prison on spying charges — a sentence that stemmed, he said, from a dinner party where he did nothing more than try to make small talk with a Chinese academic about North Korea. Since returning to Japan in October, he has tried to raise the alarm about China’s seemingly arbitrary detentions of Japanese citizens. He is one of 17 Japanese nationals detained on similar charges since 2015, but the only one to speak out about his experience and what he describes as…