Pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmakers tell a news conference on November 11, 2020 that they will resign in solidarity with four colleagues disqualified by the city’s pro-Beijing authorities AFP/Anthony WALLACE
19 Nov 2020 08:29AM(Updated: 19 Nov 2020 08:36AM)
WASHINGTON: The United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand on Wednesday (Nov 19) jointly accused China of violating its commitments following the disqualification of pro-democracy lawmakers from Hong Kong’s legislature.
Author Felix K. Chang is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is also the Chief Operating Officer of DecisionQ, a predictive analytics company, and an assistant professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
In October 2020, Hong Kong’s air traffic control denied a Taiwanese flight access to Pratas Island, a Taiwan-occupied feature in the South China Sea. It was the first time that had ever occurred. The refusal, likely prompted by Beijing, might seem to be just another way for China to put pressure on Taiwan, which it has long regarded as a renegade province. But more broadly, the incident reflects a marked change in not only how China sees Taiwan’s remote outposts, but also how confident China is in its ability to control the air and sea spaces of the South China Sea and its willingness to wield that power as a political tool.
The European Union (EU) needs China, given their close economic ties. And China needs the EU, particularly given the sharp escalation of tensions between Beijing and Washington.
But ties are starting to fray given recognition in most European capitals that China’s economic model is not compatible with theirs, that there are security risks from China’s increasingly assertive global outreach, and that China does not place the same value on human rights as they do. Tiếp tục đọc “China-EU relations: Can the EU have its cake and eat it too?”→
Hong Kong (CNN)Tens of thousands of US and Japanese troops will begin a massive island-landing exercise in the Pacific this week as part of joint military operations seen as a warning to China that Washington backs Tokyo over Beijing’s claim to Japanese-controlled islands.Speaking aboard a Japanese warship Monday, Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of US Forces Japan, said the exercises would demonstrate the ability of the US-Japan alliance “to deliver combat troops to defend the Senkakus or respond to other crises or contingencies.”Both Tokyo and Beijing claim the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyus in China, as their own, but Japan has administered them since 1972.Tensions over the uninhabited rocky chain, 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, have simmered for years, and with claims over them dating back centuries, neither Japan nor China is likely to back down.Chinese vessels have been spending record amounts of time in the waters around the islands this year, drawing condemnation from Tokyo.The US-Japan exercises, named Keen Sword 21, have been held biennially for more than 30 years. This year’s exercises run through to November 5.
File photo of two US-made Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets. (Photo: AFP/Sam Yeh)
22 Oct 2020 05:44PM
BEIJING: China threatened on Thursday (Oct 22) to retaliate against the latest US arms sale to Taiwan, as the island welcomed the weapons package but said it was not looking to get into an arms race with Beijing.
The Trump administration has ramped up support for Taiwan through arms sales and visits by senior US officials, adding to tensions between Beijing and Washington, already heightened by disagreements over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, human rights and trade.
Territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea have been a major irritant in Philippines–China relations. When Rodrigo Duterte became president in 2016, a policy decision to underscore pragmatism in relations with China and opt for a moderated approach to dispute settlement in the South China Sea became clear. In November 2018, China and the Philippines signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Oil and Gas Development, raising the prospect of an eventual joint development agreement (JDA) in the South China Sea.
Lobsang Sangay, the president of the Tibetan Central Administration (CTA), met the new US special coordinator on Tibet last week. Sangay said it was the first time that the head of the CTA had been received at the State Department.Advertisement
“China will take all necessary measures to protect its interests,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday (Oct 20).
China’s irritation with the United States over Tibet comes at a time when relations between the two world powers are at their lowest point in decades over a range of issues, including trade, Taiwan, human rights, the South China Sea and COVID-19.
Describing Sangay as an anti-China separatist, Zhao said the United States should cease any official contact with him.
The meeting “sent a seriously wrong signal to Tibetan independence forces”, he said.Advertisement
“The US should immediately stop using the Tibet issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation”. International human rights groups and exiles routinely condemn what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.
Since its formation in 1959, the Tibetan government-in-exile has been based in Dharamshala in northern India. China’s relations with India became fraught in recent months following a bloody clash between troops stationed on the disputed Himalayan border. Source: Reuters/jt
Two Chinese patrol ships have temporarily entered Japan’s territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The patrol ships exited the waters after attempting to approach a Japanese fishing boat.
The Japan Coast Guard has been warning the vessels not to reenter Japan’s waters.
The Coast Guard says two of the four Chinese patrol vessels that had been sailing just outside the territorial waters made the intrusion off Taisho Island shortly before 11 a.m. on Thursday. Taisho is one of the Senkaku Islands.
Coast Guard officials say the Chinese ships sailed in Japan’s waters for an hour and a half and left the waters by half past noon.
The Japan Coast Guard says that as of 3 p.m., four Chinese vessels, including the two that had made intrusion on the same day, were sailing just outside Japan’s waters off Taisho Island.
The two vessels, which made intrusion on Thursday, had stayed in Japan’s waters off the Senkaku Islands for more than 57 hours from Sunday morning to Tuesday evening, and attempted to approach a Japanese fishing boat.
It was the longest intrusion since Japan’s government purchased some of the Senkaku Islands from a private Japanese owner in 2012.
Japan controls the islands. China and Taiwan claim them. The Japanese government maintains the islands are an inherent part of Japan’s territory, in terms of history and international law. It says there is no issue of sovereignty to be resolved over them.
Senior US human rights official named as special coordinator for Tibetan issues amid increasingly tense relations between Washington and Beijing.
Human rights activists say Beijing suppresses local culture, the Buddhist religion and minorities in Tibet [File: He Penglei/CNS via Reuters]
14 Oct 2020
The United States has appointed a senior human rights official as special coordinator for Tibetan issues, amid increasingly tense relations between Washington and Beijing.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that Robert Destro, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, would assume the additional post, which has been vacant since the start of President Donald Trump’s term in 2017.
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Back in may, when President Donald Trump called for America to stop funding the World Health Organization, he presented a list of the WHO’s recent failures: the organization’s initial failure to flag the spread of the novel coronavirus; its initial failure to follow up when Taiwan—a country excluded from the WHO because of Chinese objections—inquired about evidence that seemed to indicate that the virus could be transmitted from one human to another; its initial failure to press China to accept an international investigation into the source of the virus. At the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO, which operates as a specialized agency of the United Nations, seemed to be one beat behind. It also seemed overly reliant upon biased information provided by the government of China.
The Cambodian government has demolished a U.S.-built facility at the country’s Ream Naval Base, according to satellite imagery collected on October 1. The demolition occurred sometime after September 5—likely around September 10—though imagery of sufficient resolution to confirm was not available at that time. The building was one of several U.S.-funded facilities on the base which were reportedly to be relocated after Cambodia struck a secret deal to grant China access to Ream. The recent demolition seems to confirm that changes are underway at the naval base and again raises questions about rumored Chinese access. Tiếp tục đọc “Changes Underway at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base”→
TTCT – Cuộc họp thượng đỉnh trực tuyến hôm 14-9 giữa các lãnh đạo Liên minh châu Âu (EU) và Trung Quốc đã được dư luận châu Âu tóm tắt bằng những câu xoay quanh tính từ “ngờ nghệch”. Tỉ như tựa đề: “Châu Âu vẫn còn quá ngây ngô trong tương quan lực lượng với Trung Quốc” của tờ Huffington Post 14-9. EU đã ngây ngô từ bao giờ, như thế nào, đến đâu, và đã thức tỉnh chưa?
Quan hệ EU – Trung Quốc đang bước vào giai đoạn nhiều thử thách. Ảnh: scmp.com
Bài xã luận cùng ngày của tờ Le Monde tái khẳng định nhận xét chua chát trên: “Châu Âu nay phải trả giá cho sự ngây ngô trước Bắc Kinh”. Tờ báo hàng đầu của Pháp giải thích “không son phấn”: “Nhóm 27 nước [tức EU, sau khi Anh đã Brexit] lâu nay mù quáng thèm khát một thị trường khổng lồ, giờ phải rũ bỏ những thỏa hiệp dễ dãi không đi kèm với những điều kiện đủ khắt khe.
Từ giờ châu Âu muốn chấm dứt tình trạng cạnh tranh bất chính của một đối tác mà châu Âu đã ngộ ra rằng cần phải đề cao cảnh giác, và nay sẵn sàng nói ra điều đó”. Tiếp tục đọc “EU tỉnh giấc”→
![Human rights activists say Beijing suppresses local culture, the Buddhist religion and minorities in Tibet [File: He Penglei/CNS via Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019-07-18T025504Z_80058370_RC19582F1990_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-TIBET.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
CVD 