Prominent Australian opposition Senator Sam Dastyari yesterday said he would resign from parliament after a series of allegations emerged about his links with Chinese-aligned interests in Australia.
Relations between Australia and China have become strained since Canberra announced last week it would ban foreign political donations as part of a crackdown aimed at preventing external influence in domestic politics.
In announcing the ban, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull singled out China, citing “disturbing reports about Chinese influence.”
Photo: EPA
China hit back, with the People’s Daily describing media reports about Chinese interference as “racist” and “paranoid.”
Dastyari, widely viewed as a rising star of the center-left Labour opposition party, has been under fire since domestic media reported he had in 2015 sought to encourage the party’s deputy leader not to meet a Chinese pro-democracy advocate opposed to Beijing’s rule in Hong Kong.
“Today, after much reflection, I’ve decided that the best service I can render to the federal parliamentary Labour Party is to not return to the Senate in 2018,” Dastyari told reporters.
The latest allegations came after Turnbull on Monday told Australian Broadcasting Corp that Dastyari had warned Chinese political donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨) that his telephone might be tapped.
Dastyari had already quit some senior Labour positions after a tape surfaced of him appearing to endorse China’s contentious expansion in disputed areas of the South China Sea, against his party’s platform. The tape showed him standing next to Huang.
Turnbull accused Labor of “failing to put Australia first,” rhetoric that analysts said could widen divisions between Canberra and Beijing.
“The row has erupted and it has claimed a political scalp,” said Euan Graham, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. “China could retaliate through non-official sanctions such as reduced tourist numbers or through buying of goods elsewhere.”
China last year bought A$93 billion (US$70.5 billion) of Australian goods and services, easily making it the nation’s biggest trading partner.
However, growing trade ties are only one side of a delicate balancing act for Australia, whose unshakable security relationship with the US has limited how cozy it gets with China.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary