China says it respects ex-Soviet states' sovereignty after envoy sparks outrage - CNA

"China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and upholds the purposes and principles of the UN Charter," Mao insisted on Monday.

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with relevant countries."

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell branded the remarks "unacceptable", adding in a tweet the EU "can only suppose these declarations do not represent China's official policy".

And Beijing on Monday distanced itself from Lu's remarks - while also defending its claimed neutral stance on Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China has always adhered to the principle of mutual respect and equality to develop bilateral friendly and cooperative relations," Mao said.

"Some media misinterpret China's position on the Ukrainian issue and are sowing discord in relations between China and relevant countries," she added, warning "we will be vigilant about this".

Lu's comments last week sparked a wave of outrage across Europe, leading the EU's three Baltic countries to on Monday summon China's envoys to explain the remarks.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on Twitter that "if anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don't trust China to 'broker peace in Ukraine', here's a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries' borders have no legal basis".

Lu has previously acknowledged being part of the so-called "Wolf Warrior" class of Chinese diplomats, a nickname given to those who respond vehemently to critics they perceive as hostile to China.

In January 2019, as ambassador to Canada, he accused the North American country of "white supremacy" for calling for the release of two Canadians detained in China, days after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States.

And last August he sparked outrage by suggesting Taiwanese people would need to be "re-educated" following a Chinese takeover of the self-ruled island.

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2023-04-24 08:27:00Z
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Violence continues in Myanmar two years into military coup, Five-Point Consensus at deadlock - CNA

Recent violence in Myanmar has shown the military’s lack of interest in sticking to the peace plan.

ROADMAP NEEDED

The plan was adopted after ASEAN leaders called for a special meeting with army chief Min Aung Hlaing.

They agreed on an immediate cessation of violence, and permission for ASEAN to send humanitarian aid to the country.

There was also a promise to hold constructive dialogue with all stakeholders, and allow a special envoy to visit Myanmar and facilitate the mediation.

Dr Lina Alexandra, coordinator of the Myanmar Initiative Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the Five-Point Consensus needs “a roadmap”.

"There should be a follow-up immediately after that,” she said. “If that had been the case, I think the situation would be a rather different one than what we're seeing now, because ASEAN has a clear roadmap."

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2023-04-24 07:01:12Z
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China's cooperation with Europe 'unlimited' as with Russia: Chinese envoy - CNA

BEIJING: China's cooperation with Europe and other nations is "endless" just as its ties with Russia are "unlimited", China's envoy to the European Union said, giving some reassurance of China's neutrality over Ukraine in an interview published on Monday (Apr 24).

It was unclear when Fu Cong, the Chinese ambassador to the EU, gave the interview to the Chinese news outlet The Paper.

But its publication comes hard on the heels of controversial remarks by China's ambassador to France, who questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet Union states including Ukraine during an interview with French television on Friday.

Various EU diplomats have slammed China for its refusal to describe Russia's war on Ukraine as an invasion or call for a Russian withdrawal, noting that Beijing and Moscow declared a "no limits" partnership just days before Russian troops launched their attack on Ukraine.

"The European side should correctly understand the reference to 'no upper limit'," Fu told the newspaper.

"Friendship and cooperation among countries are endless and should not be artificially limited. Sino-Russian cooperation is 'unlimited', and the same is true for China and Europe."

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2023-04-24 06:27:00Z
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China, Singapore plan military drills as Beijing forges defence ties - Reuters

BEIJING, April 24 (Reuters) - China and Singapore will hold a joint military exercise as soon as this week, their first combined drills since 2021, as Beijing deepens its defence and security ties with Southeast Asia, a region with strong existing U.S. alliances.

The Chinese navy will deploy a missile-bearing frigate, the Yulin, and a mine-hunting ship, the Chibi, to the joint maritime exercise which will last from late April to early May, the Chinese defence ministry said in a statement on its website on Monday, without specifying the location.

Two years ago, China and Singapore held a combined military drill in international waters at the southern tip of the South China Sea, following the upgrade of a bilateral defence pact in 2019 to include bigger-scale exercises among their army, navy and air force.

The deeper China-Singapore military cooperation comes as a time of heightened tensions in the South China Sea, an area spanning 3.5 million square km (1.4 million square miles) that is often traversed by Western navies including U.S. vessels conducting freedom of navigation operations. Such passages annoy China, which lays claims to nearly all of the South China Sea despite an international ruling to the contrary.

In August last year, the U.S. military conducted an expanded Super Garuda Shield exercise with Indonesia that saw the participation of Singapore, Japan and Australia for the first time.

Around the same time, China sent fighter-bombers to Thailand in joint air force drills code named Falcon Strike 2022. Both countries say the exercises, in northeast Thailand near the border with Laos, were defensive in nature.

The drills last summer also took place against the backdrop of elevated tensions in the Taiwan Strait following the visit of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

China's increased military engagement in Southeast Asia is widely expected to challenge the influence that the United States has shaped with countries including Singapore and Indonesia in coming years.

Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Lincoln Feast

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2023-04-24 05:17:53Z
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Chinese man loses $116k compensation after he was fired for travelling to Hainan while on 'bed rest' - The Straits Times

A Chinese employee of a high-tech company has lost the compensation of more than 600,000 yuan (S$116,000) he received for being fired after he was spotted at China’s holiday island, Hainan, while he was supposed to be on medical leave for about two weeks.

In mid-April, a court in Beijing upheld that the decision to fire him was befitting, following a long saga that started in 2019.

The man, surnamed Xu, had originally applied for annual leave in 2019 from end-July to mid-August as he planned to take his child to Hainan, according to a report in National Business Daily.

But his request was rejected because a vital project needed manpower, reported The South China Morning Post.

Subsequently, he took medical leave between July 18 and 31 for a headache and a serious back condition that hindered his mobility, according to a medical note, which also recommended Mr Xu to be on “bed rest” and perform neck exercises.

However, during his time off work, Mr Xu’s colleague spotted him at an airport in Hainan.

In August 2019, Mr Xu’s manager called him to ask where he was during his medical leave. In the conversation’s recording, Mr Xu was heard to say he remained at home in Beijing.

Two days later, Mr Xu was dismissed from his job due to his dishonesty and fraud.

At first, a labour tribunal ruled that the high-tech company should compensate Mr Xu more than 600,000 yuan for flouting labour laws.

In response, the employer filed an appeal at the Chaoyang District Court, which quashed the previous ruling.

Mr Xu then submitted an appeal at the Third Intermediate People’s Court, saying he had not cheated his former employer because he was the owner of a flat in Hainan, and hence went there to recover from his illness.

But the court pointed out Mr Xu had disregarded medical advice to rest and had travelled.

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2023-04-24 03:20:59Z
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Australia plans major overhaul of defences as China rises - CNA

China’s military buildup “is now the largest and most ambitious of any country” since the end of World War II, the review said. And it "is occurring without transparency or reassurance to the Indo-Pacific region of China’s strategic intent”, the review added.

The strategic circumstances during the current review were “radically different" than those in the past, said the review authored by former Australian Defense Force Chief Angus Houston and former Defense Minister Stephen Smith.

The United States, Australia’s most important defence treaty partner, was “no longer the unipolar leader of the Indo-Pacific”, a region that had seen the return of major power strategic competition, it said.

“As a consequence, for the first time in 80 years, we must go back to fundamentals, to take a first-principles approach as to how we manage and seek to avoid the highest level of strategic risk we now face as a nation: the prospect of major conflict in the region that directly threatens our national interest,” the review said.

For the past five decades, Australia’s defence policy had been aimed at deterring and responding to potential low-level threats from small or middle-power neighbours.

“This approach is no longer fit for purpose,” the review said.

Australia’s army, air force and navy needed to focus on “delivering timely and relevant capability” and abandon its “pursuit of the perfect solution or process” in its procurements, it said.

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2023-04-24 04:06:00Z
CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvYXVzdHJhbGlhLXBsYW5zLW1ham9yLW92ZXJoYXVsLWRlZmVuY2VzLWNoaW5hLXJpc2VzLTM0MzkyMjbSAQA

Ukraine war spurs record global spending on military, Stockholm think-tank says - CNA

STOCKHOLM: Global military spending rose to a record last year as Russia's war in Ukraine drove the biggest annual increase in expenditure in Europe since the end of the Cold War three decades ago, a leading conflict and armaments think-tank said on Monday (Apr 24).

World military expenditure rose by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022 to US$2.24 trillion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February last year following years of growing tensions, has prompted European countries to rush to bolster their defences.

Moscow says its "special military operation" was necessary to safeguard it against what it sees as a hostile and aggressive West. Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is waging an unprovoked war aimed at grabbing territory.

European military spending shot up 13 per cent last year, primarily due to increases by Russia and Ukraine, but with many countries across the continent also ramping up military budgets and planning for more amid the surging tensions.

"This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments," SIPRI senior researcher Diego Lopes da Silva said. "As a result, we can reasonably expect military expenditure in Central and Western Europe to keep rising in the years ahead."

Ukraine's military spending rose 640 per cent in 2022, the largest annual increase recorded in SIPRI data going back to 1949, with that total not including the vast amounts of financial military aid provided by the West.

SIPRI estimated that military aid to Ukraine from the United States accounted for 2.3 per cent of total US military spending in 2022. Though the United States was the world's top spender by far, its overall expenditure rose only marginally in real terms.

Meanwhile, Russia's military spending grew by an estimated 9.2 per cent, though SIPRI acknowledged figures were "highly uncertain given the increasing opaqueness of financial authorities" since its war in Ukraine began.

"The difference between Russia's budgetary plans and its actual military spending in 2022 suggests the invasion of Ukraine has cost Russia far more than it anticipated," said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, Director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

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2023-04-23 23:55:37Z
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