China yesterday said it hoped to expand newly restored ties with the Pacific state of Kiribati, site of a strategic, but mothballed Chinese space tracking station, in comments that might further stoke US anxiety about Beijing’s growing influence.
A senior Chinese diplomat said Beijing was “open” to all sorts of projects in Kiribati, an ex-British colony made up mainly of atolls in the central Pacific, in waters dominated by the US and its allies since World War II.
MEETING XI
Photo: AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday lauded Kiribati for “standing on the right side of history” during his first meeting with Kiribatian President Taneti Maamau since his administration severed ties with Taiwan in September last year.
Responding to Xi, Maamau reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the “one China” principle and expressed his “deepest respect” for the Chinese government’s sovereignty.
Speaking to reporters after the Xi-Maamau meeting, the diplomat, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs Director Lu Kang (陸慷), did not respond directly to a question about whether Beijing planned to reopen the space tracking station.
“A lot of ideas, a lot of initiatives for joint ventures are still on the way,” said Lu, a former spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“So long as any ideas that could benefit both sides, especially both peoples on both sides, definitely China is open to these kind of ideas,” he said, without elaborating.
China’s space program is overseen by the military, which has so far declined to comment on the Kiribati facility.
Kiribati had established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2003, prompting a break with Beijing. Up until then, China had operated a space tracking station in Kiribati, which played a role in tracking China’s first crewed space flight and is in a part of the world where the US tests missiles and other military hardware.
WARNING
Former Republic of China ambassador to Kiribati Abraham Chu (朱文祥) told the Central News Agency in Taipei last year that China had never fully removed the tracking station in Kiribati and that it “could come back at any time.”
Maamau and his delegation also met yesterday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強).
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese