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THITU ISLAND, SOUTH CHINA SEA, Dec 1, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines said Friday it was establishing a coast guard station on the largest island it holds in the disputed South China Sea, to improve monitoring of Chinese vessels asserting Beijing’s claims in the waters. National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano made the announcement during a visit to the Philippine-held Thitu Island, which is part of the hotly contested Spratly Islands. The coast guard station would […]
HONG KONG, Dec 1, 2023 (AFP) – A Hong Kong journalist group said Friday it was “very concerned” about the safety of an award-winning defence reporter who was reportedly missing after attending a security forum in Beijing. Minnie Chan, a reporter with Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) specialising in defence and diplomacy issues in China, “became unreachable” after visiting Beijing to cover the Xiangshan Forum in late October, Japanese news agency Kyodo said, […]
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 1, 2023 (AFP) – A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a ban on TikTok set to come into effect next year in Montana, saying the popular video sharing app was likely to win its pending legal challenge. US District Court Judge Donald Molloy placed the injunction on the ban until the case, originally filed by TikTok in May, has been ruled on its merits. Molloy deemed it likely TikTok and its […]
HONG KONG, Nov 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong authorities charged a 26-year-old man with sedition on Wednesday after police allegedly found “seditious wording” on a shirt he wore and on flags in his possession. China has tightened its grip on Hong Kong after the finance hub was rocked by huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019. The following year Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the city to quell dissent. Local […]
BEIJING, Nov 27, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese tech giant and TikTok owner ByteDance is slashing hundreds of jobs in its gaming unit, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Monday. The move marks a retreat from the competitive video gaming sector. Nuverse, a video game publisher that is a subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance, is currently conducting a round of layoffs that will affect “several hundred people”, said the source. “We regularly review our […]
BANGKOK, Nov 26, 2023 (AFP) – An ethnic minority armed group in Myanmar has seized control from the country’s ruling junta of a lucrative border crossing to China, local media and a security source said Sunday. Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state, close to the Chinese border, after an armed alliance of three ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military in October. The groups have seized dozens of military positions and […]
By Ludovic EHRET BEIJING, Nov 23, 2023 (AFP) – China has reported no ‘unusual or novel pathogens’ in a respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Northern China has recorded an increase in “influenza-like illness” since mid-October when compared to the same period in the previous three years, said the WHO, which had requested more information on the situation. China’s National Health Commission told reporters last week […]
By Amber WANG TAIPEI, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s former envoy to the United States and self-described “cat warrior”, was named Monday as the running mate to presidential frontrunner Lai Ching-te for the island’s January elections. The January 13 vote comes at a time when Beijing has intensified military and diplomatic pressure on the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and China has blasted the pairing of Vice President Lai and Hsiao […]
OTTAWA, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – A Sino-Canadian row reared its head on Monday after one of two Canadians jailed by China for nearly three years claimed he was unwittingly used for intelligence gathering and is seeking compensation from Ottawa. Beijing’s 2018 to 2021 detentions of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze. Spavor reportedly now blames Kovrig, with whom he had provided information on North Korea, unaware […]
SYDNEY, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Australian navy divers were “likely” injured by sonar pulses emitted by a Chinese warship this week, the country’s defence minister said Saturday, accusing Beijing of “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct at sea. Richard Marles said the HMAS Toowoomba — a long-range frigate — had been supporting United Nations sanctions enforcement efforts within Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The divers had plunged into the water to clear fishing nets from the ship’s […]
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week — and agreement to restore military communications — will likely improve stability in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei’s chief delegate to an economic summit said Friday. “I really think it was a good meeting, it was good news that they resumed military communications,” said Morris Chang, who is in San Francisco as Taiwan’s envoy for the […]
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday that he expressed to President Xi Jinping his “serious concerns” about Chinese military activity in the region while demanding that a ban on seafood imports be revoked. “I… expressed our serious concerns over China’s increasing military activity near Japan, including its collaboration with Russia,” Kishida said after meeting Xi for the first time in a year. “At the same time, I […]
