Southern China Morning Post - ASEAN Diplomacy

Why Cambodia’s royals need close China ties that are separate from Hun Sen’s government

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 00:15:06 GMT

In the tree-lined Dong Jiao Min Alley in Beijing’s former Legation Quarter, across the street from the St Michael’s Church, stands a gated compound watched over by a pair of Chinese imperial guardian lions.The building, which housed French diplomats until the end of the Qing dynasty and monarchy in 1911, is exclusively reserved for two royal guests of the Chinese Communist Party: Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and queen mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk.The two Cambodian royals are regular…

Asean women were key negotiators for CPTPP, RCEP. Are they better than men at talking trade?

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 10:06:54 GMT

After Singapore and 14 other nations signed the world’s largest free-trade agreement earlier this month, veteran diplomat Tommy Koh paid tribute to Singapore’s female trade negotiators. Sharing a photo of Sulaimah Mahmood, Singapore’s chief negotiator for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Koh pointed out on Facebook that some of the city state’s best trade negotiators were women.Koh was part of the team that negotiated the historic free-trade agreement between the United…

Japan condemns China’s renewed Diaoyu claim days after Wang Yi’s comments

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 09:11:52 GMT

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Friday rejected as “totally unacceptable” his Chinese counterpart’s recent public remarks claiming Beijing’s sovereignty over the Tokyo-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.“The Senkaku Islands are without doubt our country’s inherent territory historically and under international law,” Motegi told a parliamentary committee, following criticism by some ruling party lawmakers that he took no action when Wang Yi, during a visit to Tokyo…

China-Australia relations: Treasury Wine Estates takes hit from Chinese import duties as share ...

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 06:05:52 GMT

Australia’s top selling wine company and owner of the popular Penfolds label, Treasury Wine Estates, suffered an 11.25 per cent hit to its share price on Friday morning after China’s commerce ministry announced temporary anti-dumping duties on Australian wine imports from Saturday.The duties will range from 107.1 to 212.1 per cent, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday, with Treasury Wines due to face a 169.3 per cent tax.Sales in Asia, mainly China, made up around half of Treasury…

China-Australia relations: Beijing slaps ‘distressing’ duties of up to 212 per cent on ...

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 01:41:12 GMT

China’s commerce ministry said on Friday that it will impose temporary anti-dumping measures on Australian wine imports from Saturday.The duties will range from 107.1 to 212.1 per cent, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday.The commerce ministry said in a statement announcing the measures that “there is a causal relationship between [wine] dumping and material damage”.China is the biggest destination for Australia‘s wine exports, accounting for 39 per cent of total shipments in the…

New Zealand’s new foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta discusses China, her facial tattoo and ...

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:19 GMT

Diplomats like to remain neutral but Nanaia Mahuta let the veil slip a little when a winner was declared in the US election by tweeting a smiley-face emoji.Mahuta, the first indigenous Maori woman to be appointed New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister, suppresses a real-life smile when asked about it.“Look, what I can say is that there were encouraging signs in those speeches,” she said, adding that the victory speech by Kamala Harris, the US vice president-elect, was “inspirational to many…

China-Australia relations: Scott Morrison’s speech ‘confusing’ but ‘well-crafted’, ...

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 05:30:30 GMT

Toned-down comments from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison about relations with China earlier this week were “confusing,” observers and analysts said, but could indicate the start of a turnaround in frayed relations between the two countries.On Monday, Morrison commended China for lifting its citizens out of poverty and said the competition between China and the United States had “heavily clouded and distorted” Beijing’s perception that Canberra had taken sides with Washington.He had…

Asean can help avert South China Sea conflict amid ‘superpower rivalry’, Philippine defence ...

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 12:02:12 GMT

Tensions in the South China Sea will increase due to a US-China rivalry that could be kept in check, if only Southeast Asian countries took a united stand to influence the status quo, a top Philippine security official said on Wednesday.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was caught up in the battle for regional influence but it could do more to ensure stability and should take a common approach, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a security forum.“Where is the Asean in this…

China’s interest in Pacific trade deal sets stage for new US showdown after Xi Jinping ups ...

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 22:00:20 GMT

On the heels of signing the world’s biggest free trade deal, President Xi Jinping’s announcement that China “will actively consider” joining a formerly American-backed accord has sent a ripple of intrigue across the Pacific Rim.That it comes just weeks after Joe Biden’s US election win thickens the plot further still, with speculation running high as to whether the United States could also return in some shape or form to a deal dumped by Donald Trump in his first week in office.After three…

China-Australia relations: termination of free trade deal ahead of review unlikely despite ...

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 20:30:11 GMT

Bilateral tensions between China and Australia are unlikely to jeopardise the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAfta) when it is up for its five-year review next month, trade experts said.While the five-year anniversary of the historic treaty between the two countries has come in the middle of an unabating political conflict, international trade lawyers insist such reviews are designed to open up more trade and expand the treaty, and even if that does not happen, at the minimum, the trade…

China, Japan to resume two-way business travel by month’s end

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 16:34:48 GMT

The foreign ministers of Japan and China agreed Tuesday to cooperate in fighting the coronavirus and reviving their pandemic-hit economies, while trying to avoid actions that provoke tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday, and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, also agreed to resume business travel between the world’s No 2 and No 3 economies through a “business track” programme that will allow visitors to…

China-Australia relations: ex-foreign minister says Canberra must drop adversarial approach to ...

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 19:00:13 GMT

Only a herculean shift in foreign policy, a change of government or major external event will thaw a “frozen” relationship between China and Australia that has been damaged by a lack of diplomacy from Canberra that has compounded over the past three years, according to former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr.In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Carr, who was foreign minister from 2012-13, said it was not the substance of Australia’s actions – including calls for an inquiry…

China’s Wang Yi heads to Tokyo to ‘test the waters’ with Japan PM Yoshihide Suga

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 07:00:24 GMT

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Japan on Tuesday is widely seen by analysts as an attempt by Beijing to gain a deeper understanding of the new Japanese administration, and an opportunity for China to pull Japan closer into its embrace given current uncertainties surrounding American foreign policy.But the visit is also unlikely to dilute major differences between the two regional powers, analysts noted, adding that it was uncertain whether Wang could nail down a date for Chinese…

Eight dead and 31 wounded in mortar shell attack on residential areas in Kabul

Sat, 21 Nov 2020 17:52:18 GMT

About 23 mortar shells slammed into different parts of the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing at least eight people and wounding 31 others, an official said.The shells were fired from two cars, Interior Ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian said. No one took immediate responsibility for the early morning attack that also targeted the posh Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul, which houses diplomatic missions.At least one rocket landed in the Iranian embassy compound. In a tweet, Iran’s embassy in Kabul…

The US wants to take on China over illegal fishing in the South China Sea. Why is Asean wary?

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 02:15:14 GMT

Washington’s recent moves to double down on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing through a stronger maritime presence in Asia are welcome, analysts say, though they warn that countries in the region will not want militarised law enforcement that could spark bigger clashes in disputed waters – and not just with Beijing.Their comments are a response to United States National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien’s announcement last month that the US Coast Guard would deploy its newest fast…

Pakistan PM Imran Khan makes first visit to Afghanistan, seeking end to Taliban violence

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 14:04:26 GMT

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan visited war-torn neighbour Afghanistan on Thursday, where he vowed to help reduce spiralling violence and push for a ceasefire between the Taliban and Afghan forces.Khan made his first visit to Kabul as violence surged across Afghanistan despite Afghan government negotiators and the Taliban launching peace talks in the Qatari capital Doha in September.“We notice with concern that the level of violence despite the talks in Qatar ... is rising,” Khan told…

China-Australia relations: PM Scott Morrison responds to Beijing’s list of 14 grievances

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:46:07 GMT

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not compromise Australia’s national security and sovereignty, as Beijing ramped up its criticism of his government and warned it against making China an enemy.“Australia will always be ourselves,” Morrison said in a television interview with the Nine Network on Thursday. “We will always set our own laws and our own rules according to our national interests – not at the behest of any other nation, whether that’s the US or China or anyone else.”A…

Obama ‘not in a position to criticise’ Japan’s politics in memoir: analyst

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 07:38:07 GMT

In a memoir released on Tuesday, former US president Barack Obama recalled his frustration with Japan’s era of revolving-door prime ministers and the leadership of one of his former counterparts, Yukio Hatoyama. “A pleasant if awkward fellow, Hatoyama was Japan’s fourth prime minister in less than three years and the second since I’d taken office – a symptom of the sclerotic, aimless politics that had plagued Japan for much of the decade,” Obama, 59, wrote in his new book titled A Promised Land…

China-Australia relations: Canberra reached out to Beijing at ‘every possible level’, ...

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 03:33:21 GMT

Australia has “reached out at every possible level and pathway in terms of writing to Beijing” in a bid to repair fraying tensions with China, but will not budge on its criticism of “international human rights obligations”, trade minister Simon Birmingham said on Wednesday.Returning the latest volley in a game of verbal tennis between Beijing and Canberra, Birmingham told Australian radio that “it is fanciful to suggest that we haven’t sought and tried pretty much every possible or conceivable…

China-Australia relations: Beijing blames Canberra for trade spat, citing grievances from ...

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:00:10 GMT

China has rejected Australia’s claim that the “ball is in its court” regarding resolution of their escalating trade dispute, providing a long list of alleged offences that have “greatly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.At a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China bears “no responsibility” for the collapse in bilateral ties, which has resulted in a series of Australian exports to China being hit with trade restrictions.Zhao cited…