China said it held a video meeting to discuss police cooperation with several Pacific island nations on Tuesday, with at least two nations telling reporters that their ministers and police commissioners were unavailable to attend.
China’s attempt to strike a security and trade deal with 10 Pacific island nations in May fueled concern in Washington and Canberra about Beijing’s military ambitions in the region, and prompted a boost in Western aid. Those concerns were first sparked when the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with China in April.
Chinese state media yesterday reported that Chinese Ministry of Public Security Executive Vice Minister Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) had held the first minister-level dialogue on police cooperation with some South Pacific countries.
Photo:Reuters
The video meeting, cochaired with Solomon Islands Minister of Police, National Security and Correctional Services Anthony Veke, took place after two powerful earthquakes struck the Solomon Islands on Tuesday.
A photograph posted to the Twitter account of the Chinese embassy in Fiji showed Veke as the only Pacific islands minister at the video meeting.
The heads of the police departments of Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga and Papua New Guinea had attended, Xinhua reported.
Tonga’s minister of police and its commissioner of police, who is an Australian citizen, were unavailable, a Tonga police spokeswoman said.
“There was another representative from Tonga,” she added.
Papua New Guinea’s commissioner of police also did not attend; the most populous South Pacific island was instead represented in the meeting by a police superintendent, a Papua New Guinea police spokesman said.
Papua New Guinea is negotiating a defense pact with Australia, while Fiji signed an agreement with Australia last month to allow the operation of each nation’s militaries in the other country.
At a White House summit in September, the US pledged to boost aid and step up FBI training for Pacific islands including the Solomon Islands.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was