TAIPEI: Taiwan activated its defence systems on Thursday (Jun 8) after reporting 37 Chinese military aircraft flying into the island’s air defence zone, some of which then flew into the western Pacific, in Beijing’s latest mass air incursion. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has overContinue Reading
Local consultancy firm Perfeicao, which helps Chinese and Portuguese firms break into new markets, said the number of deals have gone up three times since Macao reopened its borders at the beginning of this year.
“Right now, China exports a lot of services and new technologies,” said Mr João Li, director of the firm’s Portugal office.
“We received a delegation comprising the top 500 companies from Brazil. They were looking for internet and technology companies such as Jingdong, Baidu, and Tencent (to find out) how to create a shared economy.”
These exchanges are also part of a bigger political shift as China eyes strategic partnerships in the West and beyond, amid soaring tensions with the United States.
In April, China and Brazil pledged to work together in international finance and fair development.
That same month, Macao’s Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng met with Portugal’s leaders to discuss bilateral trade.
“China is one of the biggest countries in the world in terms of demography, and one tiny place in China that has Portuguese as an official language, it has to make a difference,” said Prof Veloso.
Getty ImagesAustralia has announced it will introduce a national ban on Nazi symbols, in an effort to crack down on far-right groups.
Public displays of the swastika or SS symbols will be punishable by up to a year in prison. However the new laws will not cover the Nazi salute.
Nazi symbols are already banned in many states, but this means they won’t be allowed anywhere, the government says.
The move comes amid a resurgence in far-right activity in recent months.
In March, a group of neo-Nazis appeared at a rally in Melbourne being held by Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull – who is known for her opposition to transgender rights – and performed Nazi salutes on the steps of the Victorian Parliament.
Ms Keen-Minshull denied any connection to the group, but the event triggered a political backlash with calls for greater efforts to tackle displays of Nazi regalia.
“There is no place in Australia for symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust,” Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said, announcing the new legislation.
“We will no longer allow people to profit from the display and sale of items which celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology,” he added.
The ban includes the trade and public display of flags, armbands, t-shirts, insignia and the publication of symbols online promoting Nazi ideology, Mr Dreyfus said in a statement.
However public displays of the Nazi swastika and SS symbols for academic, educational, artistic, literary, journalistic or scientific purpose will be allowed.
The ban was also carefully drafted to exclude the display of the swastika which is of spiritual significance in some religions, Mr Dreyfus said.
The Nazi swastika is derived from an ancient hooked cross motif which remains a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
“We have consulted with these communities to ensure nothing in these laws will impinge on the use or display of these symbols in association with those religions,” Mr Dreyfus said.
He added that the legislation did not include the Nazi salute because that could be better tackled at a local level.
“There are state police on the street dealing with street behaviour like this, and we think it’s better dealt with by the state laws,” he said.
Victoria and Queensland earlier this year announced they would ban the Nazi salute.
Dvir Abramovich, from Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission described the move as “a joyful and profound moment that represents the culmination of a six-year personal campaign to defeat homegrown neo-Nazis who seek to keep Hitler’s legacy alive”.
ReutersSir Ivan Menezes, chief executive of the world’s biggest spirits company Diageo, has died aged 63.
On Wednesday, the Guinness and Johnnie Walker maker said he “passed away following a brief illness, with his family at his side.”
The British-American national was born in the Indian city of Pune. He was set to retire at the end of the month.
Earlier this week, the firm said Menezes was in hospital for conditions including a stomach ulcer.
“This is an incredibly sad day. Ivan was undoubtedly one of the finest leaders of his generation,” Diageo chairman Javier Ferrán said.
“Ivan was there at the creation of Diageo and over 25 years, shaped Diageo to become one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer companies,” Mr Ferrán added.
Prior to Diageo, he held marketing and strategy positions at major companies including food and beverage giant Nestlé.
Menezes joined Diageo in 1997 when the firm was formed through the merger of brewery giant Guinness and London-based conglomerate Grand Metropolitan.
Over the course of his career, he held several senior roles at Diageo.
As the firm’s global marketing director, he was behind the iconic Johnnie Walker “Keep Walking” campaign, which was launched in 1999.
The Scotch whisky brand has continued to run the campaign saying it “embodies our desire for progress, the fuel to tackle adversity, and the joy of unfiltered optimism.”
In 2012, Menezes was named as an executive director of Diageo and appointed to the company’s board. He was promoted to chief executive a year later.
Under his leadership, the company’s sales grew as it bought several brands, including Philippine rum brand Don Papa.
Diageo currently has more than 200 brands, which it markets in over 180 countries.
The firm’s latest annual earnings showed a jump in sales as more people made cocktails at home during the pandemic.
Earlier this year, the company announced that Menezes planned to retire on 30 June, after a decade as its chief executive.
He was set to be succeeded by chief operating officer Debra Crew.
On Monday, Ms Crew was appointed as Diageo’s interim chief executive as Menezes was undergoing medical treatment.
He was awarded a knighthood in King Charles’ first New Year Honours for services to business and equality.
Menezes is survived by his wife, Shibani and their two children, Nikhil and Rohini.
On June 3, naval vessels from the United States and Canada conducted a joint military exercise in the South China Sea. A Chinese warship, LY 132, overtook the US guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and sped across its path. The US Indo-Pacific Command released a statement saying that the Chinese ship “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner.”
The spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, responded that the United States “made provocations first and China responded,” and that the “actions taken by the Chinese military are completely justified, lawful, safe, and professional.”
This incident is one of many in these waters, where the United States conducts what it calls freedom-of-navigation exercises. These FON actions are given legitimacy by Article 87(1)(a) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea.
China is a signatory to that convention, but the United States has refused to ratify it. US warships use the FON argument without legal rights or any United Nations Security Council authorization. The US Freedom of Navigation Program was set up in 1979, before the UNCLOS and separate from it.
Hours after this encounter in the South China Sea, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. That forum, which has taken place annually at the Shangri-La Hotel since 2002, brings together military chiefs from around Asia with guests from countries such as the United States.
At a press gaggle, Austin was asked about the recent incident. He called on the Chinese government “to rein in that kind of conduct because I think accidents can happen that could cause things to spiral out of control.”
That the incident took place because a US and Canadian military exercise was conducted adjacent to Chinese territorial waters did not evoke any comment from Austin. He emphasized the role of the United States to ensure that any country can “sail the seas and fly the skies in international space.”
Austin’s pretense of innocence was challenged by his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Li Shangfu. “Why did all these incidents happen in areas near China,” Li asked, “not in areas near other countries?”
He added: “The best way to prevent this from happening is that military vessels and aircraft not come close to our waters and airspace.… Watch out for your own territorial waters and airspace, then there will not be any problems.”
Li contested the idea that the US Navy and Air Force are merely conducting FON exercises. “They are not here for innocent passage,” he said. “They are here for provocation.”
When Austin was not talking to the press, he was busy in Singapore strengthening US military alliances whose purpose is to tighten the net around China. He held two important meetings, the first a US-Japan-Australia trilateral meeting and the second a meeting that included their counterpart from the Philippines.
After the trilateral meeting, the ministers released a sharp statement that used words (“destabilizing” and “coercive”) that raised the temperature against China. Bringing in the Philippines to this dialogue, the US egged on new military cooperation among Canberra, Manila, and Tokyo.
This builds on the Japan-Philippines military agreement signed in Tokyo in February, which has Japan pledging funds to the Philippines and the latter allowing the Japanese military to conduct drills in its islands and waters.
It also draws on the Australia-Japan military alliance signed in October 2022, which – while it does not mention China – is focused on the “free and open Indo-Pacific,” a US military phrase that is often used in the context of the FON exercises in and near Chinese waters.
Over the course of the past two decades, the United States has built a series of military alliances against China. The earliest of these alliances is the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, set up in 2008 and then revived after a renewed interest from India, in November 2017. The four powers in the Quad are Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
In 2018, the US military renamed its Pacific Command (set up in 1947) to Indo-Pacific Command and developed an Indo-Pacific Strategy, whose main focus was on China. One of the reasons to rename the process was to draw India into the structure being built by the United States, emphasizing the India-China tensions around the Line of Actual Control.
The document shows how the US has attempted to inflame all conflicts in the region – some small, others large – and put itself forward as the defender of all Asian powers against the “bullying of neighbors.”
Finding solutions to these disagreements is not on the agenda. The emphasis of the Indo-Pacific Strategy is for the US to force China to subordinate itself to a new global alliance against it.
During the press gaggle in Singapore, Austin suggested that the Chinese government “should be interested in freedom of navigation as well because without that, I mean, it would affect them.” China is a major commercial power, he said, and “if there are no laws, if there are no rules, things will break down for them very quickly as well.”
Chinese Defense Minister Li was very clear that his government was open to dialogue with the United States, and he worried as well about the “breakdown” of communications between the major powers. However, Li put forward an important precondition for the dialogue. “Mutual respect,” he said, “should be the foundation of our communications.”
Up to now, there is little evidence – even less in Singapore despite Austin’s jovial attitude – of respect from the United States for the sovereignty of China. The language from Washington gets more and more acrid, even when it pretends to be sweet.
This article was produced by Globetrotter, which provided it to Asia Times.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power.
PHUKET: A Kazakh man suspected of shooting and injuring a Russian man in a gun attack in Thalang district on Wednesday has been arrested, police said.
The suspect, who was identified as Artur Legay, was detained by immigration police at Phuket International Airport on Thursday morning.
According to the initial questioning, the man from Kazakhstan had checked in and stayed at a hotel in tambon Choeng Thale. Further investigation is currently underway.
At around 11.45am on Wednesday, the Phuket 191 emergency response centre received a report that a foreign man who was sitting in a car was seriously injured in a gun attack in front of a café in the business area of Laguna Phuket, about one kilometre from Choeng Thale police station.
Local police and rescuers rushed to the spot.
According to witnesses and security camera footage from the area, when the car arrived in front of the café, a man, whose face was covered, who had earlier arrived on a Honda PCX motorcycle, approached the car. He then fired four shots with a handgun at the man sitting inside through the windscreen. After the shooting, the attacker fled on the motorcycle.
The man in the car, later identified as Dmitry Aleynikov, a 44-year-old Russian national, sustained gunshot wounds to the chest, right armpit and left arm. Rescuers extracted the unconscious and bleeding man from the vehicle and rushed him to Thalang Hospital.
A police investigation led to the arrest of the suspected attacker.
A 10m humpback whale has been rescued after becoming entangled in a shark net off Australia’s Gold Coast. Workers used delicate equipment to cut the whale free during the early morning operation. Environmental groups have pushed for the removal of nets during the whale migration season, which sees tens of thousands of the mammals pass Australia’s east coast.
So he’s back. Again. Turkey’s longest-serving leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now has another five years to lead his country. The question is, lead it to where?
Historians will one day grapple with what “Erdoganism” is – and what it has meant for Turkey – but, living through it, it is clear Erdogan has the politician’s gift for pivoting positions.
The days of “zero problems with neighbors” or the aspiration, post-Arab Spring, to support the revolutionary fervor has vanished. One of these days, Erdogan may even take a trip to Damascus.
What, then, might the next half-decade hold for Turkey? Might he – as hoped by many of those European politicians Erdogan has irritated – lead the country back to some sort of orthodoxy, a political and economic “rational path”?
Start with economics, which is where the term orthodox is used – or rather, as it applies to Erdogan’s economic views, “unorthodox.”
Erdogan has long been a supporter of the view that lowering interest rates leads to a lowering of inflation – the exact opposite of what is usually called orthodox economics. (It’s the reason economies like the US and the UK, struggling with inflation increasing prices, have repeatedly raised, rather than lowered, interest rates.)
Immediately after the election, Turkey watchers were pleased to see Mehmet Simsek, a former finance minister until 2015, when Erdogan started his unorthodox economic experiments, return as finance minister.
Simsek said in his first comments last week that Turkey would return to “rational ground.” So far, so pleasing for the outside world. True, Erdogan also said in his first speech after being sworn in that “inflation will fall” – but that was just far enough away from his claim, pre-election, that he would keep cutting interest rates to give investors hope. There was that pivot again.
What, then, of Turkey’s foreign policy? One thing that won’t change is the Syrian refugee crisis, which, with Erdogan still in charge, will splutter along at roughly the same tempo, perhaps speeded up slightly if he can get Damascus to play along.
What won’t happen, as his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu had pledged during the campaign, is the mass deportation of millions of Syrians. That, at least to European leaders fearful of another wave of migration, counts as “rational.”
Nor will there be any attempt to claim – or reclaim, depending on one’s historical perspective – a leadership role in the wider Middle East. Revolutionary fervor has left the capitals of the Middle East, replaced by a yearning for quiet economic cooperation and an end to the region’s wars. Erdogan, already keen to court Riyadh, will be back in the capitals of the Arab Gulf region before the end of the year.
When it comes to relations with the West, things get trickier, and much depends on what an “orthodox” foreign-policy approach means.
Sweden’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a good example. When Finland and Sweden first requested to join the alliance just over a year ago, almost all members accepted. Turkey was the rare holdout, using it as an opportunity to negotiate with Stockholm over what Ankara considers a lenient stance on Kurdish militant groups.
The same happened with the Ukraine conflict, of which the Swedish accession was a consequence. Again, NATO expected that Turkey would follow the West’s lead and line up against Russia. Instead, Turkey took a more independent approach, refraining from imposing sanctions on Russia while supplying its powerful military drones to Ukraine.
In some ways that approach paid off, since Turkey negotiated a grain deal with Russia that allowed Ukraine to export wheat, corn and barley, providing Kiev with a lifeline during the war. But that diplomatic victory doesn’t compare with standing by its NATO allies.
That independence, or at least the search for it, is the nearest thing to Erdoganism in foreign policy.
That’s what the talk about a resurgence of Ottoman tendencies has often obscured. Modern Turkey, as it gears up for its second century post-independence, is not an imperial country in search of an empire. But nor is it merely another European or Asian country.
Under Erdogan, Turkey aspires to be an independent country, able to remain a pivotal part of NATO but keep relations with Russia; able to seek European Union membership while expanding its influence in the Middle East.
If an “orthodox” foreign policy simply means following what is decided in the major capitals of Europe and the US, then Turkey will certainly not follow it.
That independence, of course, cuts two ways. What Erdogan calls freedom to act, others call unpredictability. Where he seeks ad hoc deals, others seek stable alliances.
That, as the country and its neighbors prepare for five more years of Erdogan as president, is the only constant. Turkey, seen from abroad, may on occasion take the rational path – but the only orthodoxy in Ankara is independence.
This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright.
Faisal Al Yafai is currently writing a book on the Middle East and is a frequent commentator on international TV news networks. He has worked for news outlets such as The Guardian and the BBC, and reported on the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Follow him on Twitter @FaisalAlYafai.
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Thursday (Jun 8) introduced a sustainability standard for data centres operating in tropical climates. It comes after a working group established guidelines to enable the operation of data centres at higher temperatures while optimising their energy efficiency. The new standard aims toContinue Reading
In 2021, Argentina’s justice system, responding to a complaint, announced it was opening an investigation into alleged crimes by Myanmar soldiers against the Rohingya, under the principle of universal jurisdiction enshrined in the constitution. That same year, six Rohingya women, living as refugees in Bangladesh, had participated in a virtualContinue Reading
