What is China up to? $$$
A high-tech Chinese research vessel has been detected mapping strategically important waters off the Western Australian coast where submarines are known to regularly transit.
Key points:
A Defence official said the ship was mapping waters used by Australian submarines to get to the South China Sea
A Border Force spokesperson said the Xiang Yang Hong 01 had stayed in international waters
In 2018, the Xiang Yang Hong 01 was found to be operating illegally within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Palau
In January and February, officials closely tracked the movements of the oceanographic ship as it conducted deepwater surveys in the Indian Ocean near Christmas Island and the Australian mainland.
80.5% Tarrif is going ahead for five years if we sell Barley to China starting on 19th May.
Better start making beer and exporting it using the Barley then.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an independent inquiry into the deadly respiratory virus and the World Health Organisation 's handling of the crisis
China has imposed an extraordinary tariff on Australian barley exports as apparent punishment for Scott Morrison's push for a coronavirus inquiry.
The Australian Prime Minister in April demanded an independent probe into the deadly respiratory virus and the World Health Organisation's handling of the crisis.
In response, Chinese state media and leaders warned of trade retribution that could wipe $153billion from the Australian economy.
After weeks of threatening to boycott the meat and barley industries and restrict travel and foreign education opportunities, China on Monday announced a 80.5 per cent levy on barley exports starting May 19.
Beijing claims Australia subsidised its farmers and dumped barley in China earlier this month. The tax will remain in place for five years, China's Ministry of Commerce said.
China announced a whopping 80.5% levy on barley exports starting May 19. Pictured is a barley farmer in central west NSW
By a majority of 2,878 to one (with six abstentions), China's parliament this week rubber-stamped a proposal that will change life for the citizens of Hong Kong for ever. The National People's Congress paved the way for a sweeping new security law - so draconian that it would make even Draco, the ancient Greek legislator from whose name the word is derived, blush. It will be imposed in September, but its repercussions are already being felt. It criminalises what Beijing deems to be subversion, separatism, terrorism and foreign interference - but that's only the start.
The candle of democracy is about to be extinguished in Hong Kong (pictured) by the Chinese regime, as can be seen by the widespread protests over the last week
In my dealings with China over many years, I have learnt one hard fact: they do not play by the same rules as other countries. They play dirty.
When I went to Beijing as Transport Minister, I was warned by the Foreign Office not to take my phone or my laptop as it was assumed the
Chinese would suck all the information out of the devices if I did.
At the residence of the British Ambassador, I asked him a question about the political situation. He ushered me into the garden and advised
Me in a low voice that it was almost certain the residence was bugged, and to be very careful what I said.
Terrorism and subversion targeted in China's new Hong Kong laws.
China releases details of its controversial new law for Hong Kong, which includes setting up a new national security bureau to target certain political crimes. Directed by Beijing and led by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, the legislation will target secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces.
Such categories have been used to jail political activists on the mainland.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-21/china-releases-details-of-security-law-for-hong-kong/12377562
As the nation prepared to hold funerals on Thursday for some of those killed the first fatal clash on the two countries' border since 1975, defence analyst Ajai Shukla tweeted the image of weapons he said had been captured by Indian soldiers at the scene of the conflict in the Galwan Valley. He wrote: “Such barbarism must be condemned. This is thuggery, not soldiering.”
Similar sentiments echoed across social media as the image proliferated, published by India Today and BBC News, the latter of which reported receiving the image from “a senior military official on the India-China border.
However, Hindi news channel ABP’s defence and security editor Neeraj Rajput later tweeted that the army had since stated that the weapons pictured were only indicative of those used during the attack. No public statement has yet been made.
While Chinese and Indian officials are largely seeking to de-escalate tensions, India Today reports that troops stationed in Ladakh have been infuriated by the mutilated bodies of their comrades.
It is not yet known how many Chinese soldiers died in Monday’s fighting, in which hundreds of soldiers from the two nuclear powers fought a freezing battle on a narrow mountainous ridge at 14,000 feet using sticks and bats. Some reportedly fell to their deaths.
The editor-in-chief of China’s official Global Times outlet said Beijing was refusing to share the number of People’s Liberation Army losses as an act of “goodwill” to “avoid stoking public mood”.
Both sides have blamed each other for instigating the deadly clash. However, recent tensions first arose in April, when China sparked confrontations with Indian soldiers by sending thousands of troops, artillery and vehicles into disputed territory along the Line of Actual Control – a de facto boundary decided upon at the end of the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
India has said the Chinese claims on the Galwan Valley are “exaggerated and untenable”, after a discussion between the Indian foreign minister and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Wednesday, in which both sides agreed not to take any steps to escalate matters and instead ensure peace and stability on the contested frontier.
However, as crowds lined the streets in Suryapet to watch the body of army colonel B Santosh Babu - who was killed in the clash - was brought home, prime minister Narendra Modi declared: “The sacrifice of our soldiers will not be allowed to go waste.”
In the shadow of the Wolf Warriors: Chinese nationalists urge President Xi to seize Taiwan as Beijing's bullying could see the island democracy that beat the virus barred from this week's vital WHO summit
IAN BIRRELL: The island nation of Taiwan is almost unique among locked down developed countries with just seven deaths and 440 confirmed cases.