A nurse prepares shots of the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China's Sinovac lab in Bogota
The United States voiced solidarity Thursday with Australia, saying it suffered from China's "coercive" diplomacy, after the US ally angered Beijing by scrapping a major infrastructure deal.
All travellers who have been to India in the preceding two weeks will be barred from entering Singapore from 11.59pm on Friday.
‘Shangri-La has continued its relationship with the same body that purchases weapons used to murder our people.’ - Justice for Myanmar This article, Myanmar activists put pressure on Robert Kuok’s niece over alleged business ties with military, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.
The foreign ministers of China and Germany have underscored the need for Brussels to engage rather than isolate Beijing as sanctions over alleged labour abuses in Xinjiang cast a shadow over a landmark investment agreement with the EU. The call for cooperation came during a video conference on Wednesday between German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Wang said China and Germany should ensure the stability of global industrial and supply chains and resist decoupling, according to a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. “China does not approve of division based on ideology and engaging in new collective confrontations. It is even more opposed to engaging in ‘small cliques’, advocating a ‘new cold war’, and even arbitrarily imposing unilateral sanctions based on false information,” Wang was quoted as saying. “China and Germany should jointly be defenders of multilateralism and contributors to global development.” Before the meeting, Maas stressed the need for strong communication with Beijing. “In the European Union, we have been describing China as a partner, competitor and systemic rival at the same time,” he said. “Decoupling is the wrong way to go.” The meeting comes just weeks after China was hit by a round of coordinated sanctions from the United States, the EU, Britain and Canada over reports of forced labour in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, accusations that Beijing rejects. Those reports prompted calls from some European lawmakers to scrap the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which China and the European Union reached in December but have still to ratify. At the time, Beijing described the agreement as a showcase of China-Europe cooperation. Prospects for engagement between the EU and China are also clouded by the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been a leading advocate of better relations with Beijing and will step down this year. In the last two weeks, Merkel has spoken twice to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Official government readouts from Germany and China indicate that the agenda did not include possible sanctions on German officials or issues such as Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Taiwan or Huawei – Europe’s biggest talking points on China. On Wednesday, Wang said ties between China and Germany remained stable, benefiting both China and Europe, and the two countries should embark on a fresh round of high-level exchanges as soon as possible. “China and Germany must always grasp the important principles and valuable experience of mutual respect,” he was quoted as saying. Wang said China and Germany should cooperate on 5G technology, clean energy, public health and digital economy. “We hope Germany can be opened to China, and remove the export restrictions on high technology to China, creating a fair, open and non-discriminatory operation environment to Chinese businesses in Germany,” he said.This article China-Germany relations: engage, don’t isolate, foreign ministers urge European Union first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
A Canadian judge on Wednesday adjourned Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou's extradition hearing until August, giving her team time to review newly obtained documents from investment bank HSBC they say are key to her defense.
US President Joe Biden's reported plan to formally recognize as genocide the World War I-era killings of 1.5 million Christian Armenians by the Muslim Ottoman Empire risks plunging relations with Turkey into deep crisis.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 24 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore on Thursday (22 April) including 22 imported cases, one case in the community, and one dormitory resident, taking the country's total case count to 60,904.
A Mrs World winner facing criminal charges after an on-stage fracas at a Sri Lankan beauty pageant has relinquished her title, organisers said Wednesday.
A US spy plane buzzed the Chinese coast this week, one of several warplanes deployed close to Chinese territorial waters amid live-fire exercises by the PLA Navy, according to a think tank. The Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said a US Air Force RC-135W electronic reconnaissance aircraft made an unusually close flight along China’s eastern coast on Tuesday, coming within 40 nautical miles of Qingdao, the headquarters of People’s Liberation Army Navy’s North Sea Fleet. An RC-135W and a P-8A anti-submarine aircraft also patrolled the South China Sea on Wednesday during live-fire exercises in the disputed waters, according to the think tank.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Last week, US spy planes patrolled along the southeast coast of Guangdong province before heading south to the disputed Paracel Islands, also in the South China Sea, according to open-source aviation radar responder records. The think tank said the aircraft involved in the patrols last week and on Wednesday temporarily “disappeared” from public radar records when flying over the eastern to northern section of the Paracels, possibly “having turned off their responders”. Beijing’s ‘combat drills’ near Taiwan seen as a message to US military State broadcaster China Central Television said near-shore patrols enabled planes to detect electronic signals on land in their mission to collect intelligence on the PLA. “The patrols enable them to obtain more information in the shortest time and more valuable signals in the most efficient manner,” the broadcaster said. At the same time, PLA’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group has been conducting exercises near Taiwan. Last September, China accused US warplanes of masquerading as civilian aircraft in close-shore reconnaissance missions, posing a “serious security threat”. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said identity disguise was a “common trick”, with the US Air Force carrying out such exercises at least 100 times in 2020. In August, a US surveillance plane flew into the no-fly zone China announced for a military exercise in the Yellow Sea, prompting a protest from the Chinese defense ministry.More from South China Morning Post:China ‘not afraid of falling behind’ on military technology, analyst saysWas China’s military modernisation driven by its ‘humiliation’ in 1996?China’s aviation capabilities stuck at ‘low-end’ as military-civil fusion weighs on innovation: official reportChina’s military to hold live-fire drills off Taiwan as US delegation visits the islandThis article US spy planes keep close eye on China amid live-fire military exercises first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Police in the US state of Ohio fatally shot a Black teenager who appeared to be lunging at another person with a knife, less than an hour before former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
A Syrian officer was killed and three soldiers wounded Thursday in strikes launched by Israel after a missile was fired towards a secretive nuclear site in the Jewish state, a monitor said.
Singapore and Hong Kong called off an announcement planned for Thursday on an air travel bubble between Asia’s two major financial hubs, according to people familiar with the matter.
The airline continues to burn cash as it engages in cost-cutting measures. The post SIA’s Share Price is Up 50% in the Last 8 Months: Should You Sell? appeared first on The Smart Investor.
A Chinese scientist on the joint international team investigating the origins of Covid-19 has accused WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being “extremely irresponsible” for pursuing the “lab leak” theory. The rare public display of discontent – voiced by an anonymous expert and reported in local state media – showed how Beijing subtly protested against the World Health Organization’s pursuit of a hypothesis that China preferred to abandon while leaving room not to bruise ties with the UN agency. The issue might potentially sour the relationship between China and the world health body but would not fundamentally change it, an observer said.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. China has been firmly pushing back against any suggestions that a leak from a high-level biosecurity lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan started the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also insisted China was very cooperative and transparent with the investigation. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday afternoon that all parties should respect science and the opinions and conclusions of scientists, and the WHO in particular, should play an exemplary role. Last month, following the release of the report by the Chinese and international experts on their 28-day mission to study how Covid-19 erupted in Wuhan, Tedros expressed concern that the international team had difficulty gaining access to raw data during the visit early this year and that the team was too quick to dismiss the laboratory leak theory. He told member states during a meeting in late March that the laboratory leak required further investigation, potentially via additional missions involving specialist experts he was ready to deploy. “Tedros’ remarks were extremely irresponsible,” state-owned broadcaster Hubei Media Group reported, citing an unidentified Chinese expert from the mission. There were 17 Chinese experts in the joint mission. Hubei province administers Wuhan, where the investigation mission took place. Scientists call for new probe into coronavirus origins – with or without China The unnamed expert expressed “surprise” and “discontent” that Tedros made such comments after scientific facts and expert consensus showed the laboratory leak hypothesis was unfounded, the report said. “As an authoritative body in the field of global public health, the WHO should have shown more respect for science, held science in awe and taken the lead in maintaining the authority of the report. However, director general Tedros disregarded the experts’ painstaking research and scientific consensus, which should not be the WHO’s position,” the expert was quoted as saying. The expert said Tedros’ remarks were being used by “forces with ulterior motives” to attack the report, although did not elaborate. The expert said foreign counterparts in the mission were under pressure from the United States and senior officials from the WHO in their exchange. Such remarks by Tedros might jeopardise future coronavirus tracing work, the expert warned. “There are already forces with ulterior motives seizing on the director general’s statement to question the authority and scientific validity of the report. The joint experts are very worried about it, and even discontent,” the expert said. “If the next phase of global virus origin tracing is thus stalled because of this, then the WHO should also be held responsible.” Tedros, who prompted criticism for publicly praising China for its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak after his visit to the country in January 2020, has been caught in the crossfire between China and the US over the handling of the outbreak during the early stages. He was personally attacked by then US president Donald Trump, who accused the WHO of being China-centric, writing in an open letter to Tedros that the WHO must show its independence from China. The accusations by the anonymous expert was a reversal of China’s long-time call for supporting the WHO, though Tedros had been consistent in keeping the lab leak theory hypothesis open. Liang Wannian, leader of the Chinese side of the investigation team, has said repeatedly that biological samples and data could not be taken out of the country or photographed, citing China’s privacy law, but that international experts could view the database and materials just as much as Chinese experts could. Beijing’s floating of views through unofficial channels and with anonymous sources is not an uncommon method. An anonymous expert from the Chinese team told the Global Times last month he was “surprised” after the WHO announced the release of the investigation report without telling China first and was concerned the report would be a “deviation from consensus”. The report was eventually released later than the WHO’s original announcement. Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, said that even though it was unclear whether the expert’s view represented the official stance of the Chinese government, publication by a state media outlet showed it had received official approval. “I feel it’s not so much indication of China’s displeasure of what Tedros said as China’s frustration that WHO is siding with the US and some Western countries to pressure China,” Huang said, adding that China had repeatedly indicated the origin tracing had become a political issue rather than a scientific one. Unseen Wuhan research notes could hold answers – and why lab-leak rumours refuse to die This display of discontent could sour the China-WHO relationship and it remained to be seen how damaging it was, Huang said. “I don’t think China will act like Trump [by starting to exit the WHO] because it would undermine China’s image in the global health leadership. I don’t think this will fundamentally change the relationship between China and the WHO,” Huang said. “China seeks to play that leadership role in the world health governance and they count on the WHO’s support in critical events.” But the episode was likely to have an impact on the future of tracing the coronavirus origins in China, Huang added.More from South China Morning Post:Coronavirus: US diplomat Anthony Blinken criticises China, insists on ‘need to get to the bottom’ of pandemic originWHO team probing coronavirus origins in China pushes back as report faces global criticismCovid-19 hunt needs more research and better data-sharing, says WHO chief after Wuhan report fails to find originWhy limiting AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines over blood clot fears could do more harm than goodCoronavirus vaccine scams pose a growing threat to the global economy and public healthThis article Coronavirus: Chinese expert rails against WHO chief and Wuhan lab leak theory first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
A Chinese drone maker says it has manufactured a prototype unmanned stealth aircraft that it claims could rival the B-21 Raider being developed for the US Air Force. Zhongtian Feilong Intelligent Technology, based in Xian, said in a statement on its WeChat social media account on Tuesday that the Feilong-2 – or Flying Dragon-2 – prototype had recently been completed. It said the multirole high-subsonic unmanned aerial vehicle could be used for precision strikes on key assets such as enemy command centres, military airstrips and aircraft carriers.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. The Feilong-2 could also be used with a swarm of drones to carry out reconnaissance and surveillance, a saturation attack or damage assessment, the statement said. It is designed to identify targets using optical and active radars in difficult weather conditions, and stealth features include a special coating to reduce reflection. The drone has an internal payload capacity of 6 tonnes and an operating range of 7,000km (4,350 miles) and it can be flown at an altitude of 49,000 feet. The aircraft can fly at up to 780km/h. According to its developer, the Chinese drone comes close to Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider in terms of speed, attack range, payload and stealth capabilities – but Zhongtian Feilong claims its unmanned aircraft is cheaper to produce and is expected to last longer. “This means the American B-21 has already fallen behind, even before it enters service,” the statement said. The B-21 Raider is an advanced, very long-range, heavy-payload stealth strategic bomber that will be able to deliver both conventional and thermonuclear weapons. It is expected to enter service around 2026. The US Air Force plans to retire its B-1B long-range supersonic conventional bombers to make way for the B-21s. The B-1Bs have been used for missions including reconnaissance over the South China Sea and near Chinese airspace, according to Beijing-based think tank the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative. Zhongtian Feilong’s other drones include an unmanned attack aircraft, long-range reconnaissance aircraft and a fixed-wing light small drone, according to the China Aerospace Studies Institute in the US. China should use drones to patrol and defend contested seas, academics say Drones, which can be used to carry out attacks against enemies while minimising a military’s own casualties, have become increasingly important for defence forces around the world, and developing them is a key part of the rivalry between China and the United States. A Shenzhen-based company unveiled a new military micro drone for surveillance in February that could rival the Black Hornet Nano used by the US, while in October, Chinese media reported that a low-cost “suicide drone” – dispatched in a swarm to attack a target – had been developed in the country.More from South China Morning Post:Chinese fishermen find drone ship ‘used for spying by a foreign country’How Shenzhen, the hi-tech hub of China, became the drone capital of the worldChinese military micro drone unveiled at Abu Dhabi weapons showThis article Chinese firm claims new stealth drone may rival US Air Force’s B-21 Raider first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday downplayed the possibility of getting militarily involved in the Taiwan issue after angering Beijing with a call for “peace and stability” across the strait. Suga made the call with US President Joe Biden on Friday during talks at the White House, the first reference to Taiwan – which Beijing claims as its territory – in a joint statement in over 50 years. The two leaders also said they would counter China’s “intimidation” in the Asia-Pacific region. Asked by an opposition lawmaker on Tuesday whether Japan would get militarily involved in issues related to the Taiwan Strait, in line with US strategy on China, Suga told parliament that the joint statement “does not presuppose military involvement at all”.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Beijing – which has not renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control – has been wary of Japan’s growing alliance with the United States under the Biden administration, particularly after US and Japanese defence chiefs agreed in March to cooperate closely if Beijing decided to attack Taiwan. According to Kyodo news agency, Tokyo has been looking at the feasibility of issuing an order for its Self-Defence Forces to protect US warships and military planes in the event of a crisis between mainland China and Taiwan, given their proximity to Japan and the possibility that an armed conflict could affect the safety of Japanese citizens. Japan has meanwhile voiced concerns over China’s new coastguard law that allows its quasi-military force to use weapons against foreign ships that Beijing sees as illegally entering its waters. Takashi Terada, a professor of international relations at Doshisha University in Kyoto, said Suga’s remarks on Tuesday suggested there was not a strong expectation for military engagement over Taiwan. “Japan expects China to find a peaceful (non-military) solution, [so] it would be contradictory if Japan stressed the military element in its approach to this,” Terada said. He said the joint statement on Taiwan was already a “big step” demonstrating Japan’s alliance with the US, and there was no point in Tokyo taking steps that would aggravate Beijing further. But Xing Yuqing, an economics professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, said Japan would be obliged to assist the US if a conflict erupted with China over the Taiwan Strait due to a defence policy shift made under the previous administration of Shinzo Abe. The change in 2014 saw the government reinterpret the pacifist constitution to allow troops to fight overseas for the first time since 1945. “Japan has agreed to the US request to address Taiwan in the joint statement because it wants to demonstrate its position on this matter,” Xing said. “But more importantly, it wants to express the hope not to get involved in a potential military conflict in the Taiwan Strait.” Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said he believed Japan would still take a position of “ambiguity” on the issue of a possible conflict over Taiwan. “Japan’s strategy is still vague on whether or not it’s committed to assisting the US to protect Taiwan – Japan doesn’t want to take a clear stand because that would be a huge threat to its own security,” Song said. “Even the US hasn’t clarified its strategic ambiguity on Taiwan, so Japan must also take that approach.” Washington recognises a single China but will come to Taiwan’s defence – without spelling out what that means – and will not pressure Taipei to settle with Beijing, a policy short-handed as “strategic ambiguity”.More from South China Morning Post:China conducts aerial bombing drill after US-Japan statement on TaiwanJapan troops won’t get involved if China invades Taiwan, PM Yoshihide Suga saysChina may hit back against Japan over Taiwan issue but economic action unlikely, analysts sayThis article Japan expected to take position of ‘ambiguity’ on Taiwan issue first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
The optimism in Singapore real estate performance investment is not surprising considering that property investors were confident even during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that transaction volumes in Asia Pacific will rebound meaningfully by early 2021. The post Singapore real estate performance investment expected to recover in coming quarters appeared first on iCompareLoan.
Belgium's ambassador to South Korea apologised Thursday after footage showed his wife hitting two boutique staff in the head in a row over shoplifting.
China on Thursday said Australia's sudden scrapping of a Belt and Road Initiative deal risked "serious harm" to relations and warned of retaliatory actions, but Canberra insisted it would not be bullied.
New Yorker Fred Teng has a simple message. With thousands of hate crimes against Asian-Americans reported amid the coronavirus pandemic, the president of the not-for-profit America China Public Affairs Institute wants to make one thing clear. “We just want to be equal. We don’t want to be more, we don’t want to be less. And this country belongs to us, as well as anyone else,” Teng said.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. As part of that mission, Teng has joined the newly created Hate Crime Review Panel, a partnership with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) that will help police determine which cases should be investigated as hate crimes. Teng is one of five community leaders from the city’s Asian, Black, Jewish, LGBTQ and Muslim communities who will help the force establish if a victim’s actual or perceived race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation were motivating factors in possible hate crime. NYPD chief of department Rodney Harrison said the panel would offer insight into cases that presented significant challenges in proving an assailant’s intent was hate. “They may help us see things we may not have seen. And ultimately ensure justice for victims, which is what we all want,” Harrison said. The new panel builds on the work of the NYPD Asian Hate Crime Task Force created in August to deal with a rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. The team’s 25 Asian-American police officers can communicate with victims without the help of translators, according to the NYPD. For Shanghai-born Teng, who moved to Hong Kong at age five and the United States at 15, direct input is essential. “We are from the community. We know the culture, histories and language and nuances of our community so we could add value,” he said. Teng’s appointment comes as advocacy groups say there have been thousands of reports of racism targeting Asian Americans. Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition of such groups, said it received nearly 3,800 reports of racism targeting Asian Americans between March 2020 and February this year. AAPI stands for “Asian-American and Pacific Islander”. Around 11 per cent of those reported incidents involved physical assault and more than 40 per cent of the cases were reported by Chinese, according to the nationwide data. Last month the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism said hate crimes against Asian-Americans rose by 149 per cent in 2020 in 16 major cities compared with 2019. At the time, then-US president Donald Trump repeatedly referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” and “kung flu”. Fear keeps elderly Korean-Americans at home in LA amid rising anti-Asian attacks Teng said much of this violence was targeted at the Chinese community and associated with a decline in relations at the top. “While this is called anti-Asian crime, I think this wave is really against the Chinese,” he said. “The pandemic led to economic downturns and frustration, but also because of government officials’ speech.” According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a hate crime is a criminal offence motivated by biases against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. But the cases could be more difficult to prosecute than regular criminal charges, prompting some prosecutors in the past to avoid the cases, Teng said. He said he hoped the panel could help change that by working within the system. New Yorkers rally as attack suspect faces anti-Asian hate crime charge “[It’s] not that we have the ultimate power to control whether the district attorney can prosecute or not. But if they don’t [after] the NYPD determined it is a hate crime … as a panel and an independent civilian board, we will issue a letter to the district attorney,” Teng said. “If it’s reviewed by the police and us, we hope that the district attorney will take it on, rather than taking an easy route out of lesser charges so that they can win. “You can have lots of people demonstrating and a lot of my friends go out. It’s great what they are doing, but it does not have as much of an impact directly. For us [the new panel] is a starting point.”More from South China Morning Post:US Pacific Islanders highlight their cultures and concerns as pushback against anti-Asian hate sees them swept up in AAPI acronymNew Yorkers rally as stomping attack suspect faces anti-Asian hate crime chargeChinese-American NFL star Taylor Rapp to donate NFT funds to anti-Asian hate campaign – ‘it was a responsibility’Two men charged with Asian hate crimes in separate incidents in Seattle and San FranciscoThis article The Chinese-American stepping up to take on hate crimes first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2021.
