Konflikti Kiinan merellä

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Saturday indefinitely delayed a proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, in a dramatic retreat after anger over the bill triggered the city’s biggest and most violent street protests in decades.

The extradition bill, which would have covered Hong Kong’s seven million residents as well as foreign and Chinese nationals there, was seen by many as a threat to the rule of law in the former British colony.

Around a million people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to oppose the bill, according to organizers of the protest, the largest in the city since crowds came out against the bloody suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations centered around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Demonstrations continued through the week and were met with tear gas, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets from police, plunging the Asian finance hub into turmoil and piling heavy pressure on Lam.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...eader-suspends-extradition-bill-idUSKCN1TG01Z

 

[Teräsmies]

Tupolevit vierailivat Japanin ilmatilassa.

防衛省・自衛隊：ロシア機による領空侵犯について

www.mod.go.jp

 

[nöksy]

Nyt kun Iranin ympäristössä kuohuu niin odotan pienessä juhannussievässä että mikä on tämän geopoliittisen alueen seuraava tapahtumaketju. Kiinalla ja Pohjois-korealla on ollut aikaa puuhastella liiaksi lähiaikoina.

 

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Nyt kun Iranin ympäristössä kuohuu niin odotan pienessä juhannussievässä että mikä on tämän geopoliittisen alueen seuraava tapahtumaketju. Kiinalla ja Pohjois-korealla on ollut aikaa puuhastella liiaksi lähiaikoina.

Hyvin ajateltu. Päädyin samaan tulokseen muutama päivä sitten, mutta toivon että mitään ei tapahdu, niin ei tarvitse päivittää tätä ketjua.

 

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Lentokentän läheisyydessä pörräävät miehittämättömät lennokit häiritsevät lentoliikennettä Singaporessa. Viikon aikana jo yli 60 lentoa on joko myöhästynyt tai ohjattu toisaalle lennokkihavaintojen vuoksi.

Pelkästään maanantaina ja tiistaina parikymmentä lentoa on myöhästynyt ja seitsemän lentoa on jouduttu ohjaamaan muualle Changin kentällä "huonon sään ja luvattoman lennokkitoiminnan vuoksi".

Changi on yksi maailman vilkkaimmista lentokentistä, ja sen kautta matkusti viime vuonna 65,6 miljoonaa matkustajaa.

Viranomaiset tutkivat kuka tai ketkä lennokkeja lennättävät ja miksi. Mitään motiivia ei toistaiseksi tiedetä. Lennokkeja ei saa Singaporen lain mukaan lennättää viiden kilometrin säteellä lentokentästä.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10846633

 

[KymJP2K]

Wardronin. Tykkään.

Panee arvostamaan demokratiaa jossa pääministeriä ei nimitetä naapurivaltiosta.

 

[KymJP2K]

Olipas laadukas kanava. Kukahan tuota rahoittaa?

Iranin puolustuksesta oli leikattu ohjuslaukaisuja ja satelliittikuvia puolustusryhmittymistä valtavalla nopeudella.

 

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Around midnight on June 9, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and partially sank a wooden Filipino fishing boat, the F/B Gem-Ver 1, which was anchored at Reed Bank in the South China Sea. After the collision, the Chinese vessel reportedly turned off its signal lights and sailed away as the Filipino boat sank. The 22 Filipino fishers abandoned their boat and struggled to keep themselves afloat for more than six hours before being rescued by a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the vicinity. The collision is the latest, and most serious, in a series of incidents that have shaken the Philippines-China rapprochement forged under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

An Accident or a Deliberate Act?

On June 12, Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana criticized the Chinese for abandoning the Filipino fishermen to the mercy of the sea, saying that “the cowardly action of the Chinese fishing vessel that abandoned the Filipino fishermen is not the expected action from a responsible and friendly people.” He called for a formal investigation of the incident and appealed to authorities to take the appropriate diplomatic steps. On June 14, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed a formal diplomatic protest with Beijing over the Chinese fishing vessel’s actions.

A day earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry had dismissively called the incident “an ordinary maritime traffic accident.” Spokesperson Geng Shuang castigated the Philippines for politicizing the incident without verification. Philippine Navy Vice-Admiral Robert Emperdrad responded by insisting that the incident was not an accident. He explained, “the Filipino boat was anchored. Based on the international rules of the road, it had the privilege because it could not evade an incoming ship. So the boat was rammed. This is not a normal incident.”

Philippine Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio has insisted that the Reed Bank incident was likely an operation by the Chinese maritime militia designed to drive away Filipino fishing boats from the Spratly Islands, similar to the way China treats Vietnamese fishing in the Paracels. In a June 14 statement, Carpio argued that ordinary fishing vessels would not engage in ramming of other boats for fear of damaging their own vessels. He noted that Chinese militia vessels often loiter near Philippine-occupied Thitu Island and other features in the Spratlys to intimidate the Filipino occupants of those features, but called the ramming of the Gem-Ver 1 a “quantum escalation of China’s aggressive acts against the Philippines.”

Appeasement Policy in Crisis

The usually outspoken President Duterte, however, was conspicuously silent about the Reed Bank incident in the immediate aftermath. He broke his silence on June 17 to declare the sinking a “little maritime accident,” echoing the Chinese foreign ministry’s statement and contradicting those of his defense secretary, the vice admiral of the Philippine Navy, the captain of the Gem-Ver 1, and the owner of the Vietnamese fishing vessel who rescued the 22 Filipino crew members.

The Reed Bank collision follows a series of worrying incidents that have put domestic pressure on the Duterte administration to take a tougher line on China. In late July 2018, the Philippine government expressed its concern to China over the increase in offensive radio warnings against Philippine aircraft and ships operating near Chinese-held features in the South China Sea. On August 15, 2018, Duterte criticized China for its island-building activities and called on it to temper its behavior in the South China Sea. In early April 2019, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed a diplomatic protest with China over the presence of more than two hundred suspected militia vessels around Thitu Island.

After the sinking of the Gem-Ver 1, opposition politicians have urged Duterte to take a stronger stand against China by recalling the Philippine ambassador from Beijing to show how serious he is about defending the country’s maritime rights as well as the safety of Filipino fisherfolk. His response has instead shown that he is willing to compromise both in order to safeguard his increasingly fragile rapprochement with China.

https://amti.csis.org/incident-at-reed-bank-a-crisis-in-the-philippines-china-policy/

 

[ctg]

About a thousand people have held a noisy rally outside the police headquarters in downtown Hong Kong, calling for the release of protesters arrested during this month’s wave of political unrest, following a peaceful demonstration earlier on Wednesday.

The protesters, mostly dressed in black and many covering their faces with masks and wearing hard hats, occupied the streets around the police headquarters in Wan Chai after 10pm and chanted loudly “Shame on you” and “Release the righteous fighters” to the beating of drums.

Some used crowd-control barriers to form a barricade between the front entrance of the police headquarters and the protesters, while others placed barriers in front of the compound’s gates.

At one point, to the cheering of the crowds, a young man sprayed painted obscenities in large Chinese and English characters on the front wall of the police headquarters and unfurled a large Chinese scroll down the side of the building emblazoned with the message “Release the righteous fighters”.

Protesters also sprayed painted slogans on to walls around the compound, on doors as well as security cameras. Some tried to obscure cameras with umbrellas.

Police were seen standing guards inside the compound, with some wearing riot helmets and carrying shields.

Hong Kong has been rocked by its biggest political crisis in decades as millions have thronged to the streets this month to protest against a proposed law allowing for the extradition of individuals, including foreign nationals, to mainland China to stand trial.

Police used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of thousands of people occupying the main thoroughfares outside the government headquarters on 12 June, drawing condemnation from international rights groups. Police said last week that 32 had been arrested over the demonstrations and five have been charged with rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Earlier in the evening, thousands of people gathered by the harbour front in the heart of Hong Kong’s central business district to continue the fight for the withdrawal of the controversial extradition law and to demand democracy.

The peaceful rally on Wednesday evening was aimed at keeping international attention on Hong Kong before the G20 summit in Japan, where the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, are expected to meet later this week.

China has said it will not allow the G20 nations to discuss Hong Kong at the summit in Osaka, Japan.

“Free Hong Kong. Democracy now. Withdraw the evil law,” chanted the crowds, most of whom were wearing black.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...support-from-g20-leaders-over-extradition-law

 

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The premiere of an epic Chinese war movie has been cancelled a week before its scheduled release, in what appears to be a new round of tightening of ideological control in the country.

A terse one-sentence statement on the official microblog of the film The Eight Hundred this week announced that the film’s 5 July premiere will be cancelled and “a new release date will be announced later”.

The film had already been pulled the day before its opening-night premiere at the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival earlier this month, apparently because it glorifies the second world war heroism of the Communists’ rival Nationalist party, according to Chinese-language media reports.

The ruling Nationalist party fought alongside the Communists against Japan during the second world war, but retreated to Taiwan after it lost the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Chinese propaganda emphasises the Communist party’s valiant role in the war against Japan but portrays the Nationalist party as having had a marginal and passive role.

The cancellation of The Eight Hundred came after a group of retired party cadres and conservative figures, including high-ranking former military personnel, lashed out at the movie in a seminar on films on 9 June. Such retired officials still exercise influence over ideological matters.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...red-premiere-cancelled-in-apparent-censorship

 

[lukkarinapulainen]

The ruling Nationalist party fought alongside the Communists against Japan during the second world war

Vai oikein rinnalla, heh. Kansallinen vallankumousarmeija taisteli käytännössä yksinään japanilaisia vastaan, kommunistien keskittyessä valloittamaan kansallisten alueita ja käymään kansalaissotaa näitä vastaan.

Ja vuosia ennen Euroopan toista maailmansotaa.

Herra paratkoon, eihän totuudenmukaista elokuvaa voi manner-Kiinassa esittää.

 

[ctg]

Extraordinary evidence has emerged that the Metropolitan Police targeted a Chinese dissident in London following concerted pressure from Beijing.

Shao Jiang, a Tiananmen Square survivor who fled China and was granted political asylum, was arrested in London in October 2015 during a state visit from President Xi Jinping.

Video footage shows Shao holding two A4 sheets of paper, one saying “End Autocracy” and the other saying “Democracy Now” before being aggressively detained by officers.

After being taken to a local police station for a breach of the peace the 52-year-old was subsequently arrested for conspiracy to commit a section 5 public order act offence. This is a more serious charge that then enabled officers to search his London home, seizing computers which Shao suspects may have been given to Chinese authorities before they were returned to him.

Police watchdog investigators then found evidence that the Met’s treatment of Shao, one of the last protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, was influenced by pressure from Beijing to ensure Xi was not “embarrassed” by protests during his visit.

Following Chinese pressure, documents show UK government officials, understood to be from the Home Office, also made “unusual requests” to the police about managing the state visit, an intervention that one officer described as “unprecedented”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ure-before-arrest-of-chinese-dissident-london

 

[ctg]

Since 2014, China has substantially expanded its ability to monitor and project power throughout the South China Sea via the construction of dual civilian-military bases at its outposts in the disputed Spratly and Paracel Islands. These include new radar and communications arrays, airstrips and hangars to accommodate combat aircraft, and deployments of mobile surface-to-air and anti-ship cruise missile systems.

This map highlights how these capabilities overlap. For illustrative purposes, the ranges of known high frequency radar installations are depicted as being 300 kilometers, while those of smaller arrays are shown as 50 kilometers. Combat radii for fighter aircraft are shown based on China’s J-11 fighters while bomber ranges are based on China’s H-6 bombers, both of which have been deployed to Woody Island. SAM and cruise missile ranges are based on the HQ-9, YJ-62, and YJ-12B systems that have been deployed across Woody Island, Fiery Cross Reef, Mischief Reef, and Subi Reef. Fighter and bomber ranges at Fiery Cross, Mischief, and Subi Reefs represent expected future deployments based on the hangars built to accommodate those assets.

https://amti.csis.org/chinese-power-projection/

 

[ctg]

Hong Kong protesters attempt to storm government headquarters – live

Anti-Beijing protesters block key streets as anniversary of 1997 transition coincides with anger about controversial extradition law

www.theguardian.com

 

[ctg]

Hongkongin hallintojohtaja Carrie Lam on tuominnut vallanvaihdoksen vuosipäivän levottomuudet aamuneljältä järjestetyssä lehdistötilaisuudessa.

Vain paria tuntia aiemmin poliisi oli tyhjentänyt Hongkongin parlamenttirakennuksen, jonne osa mielenosoittajista oli tunkeutunut särkemällä lasiovet.

Rakennuksen sisällä protestoijat rikkoivat huonekaluja ja töhrivät seiniä. Seinälle he ripustivat brittihallinnon aikaisen lipun.

Hallintojohtaja Lam kutsui varhaisaamun tiedostustilaisuudessa väkivaltaisiksi äityneitä protesteja surullisiksi ja järkyttäviksi.

Hän sanoi toivovansa, että yhteiskunta palaa normaalitilaan mahdollisimman nopeasti. Lam totesi myös, että tuhannet mielenosoittajat olivat marssineet rauhanomaisesti.

Myös Kiinan keskushallinto tuomitsi vandalismin parlamenttirakennuksessa ja vaati, että siitä vastuussa olevat on asetettava rikosoikeudelliseen vastuuseen.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10857728

 

[ctg]

The escalating protests in Hong Kong pose a personal challenge to the autocratic rule of Xi Jinping, whose implacable domination of Chinese public life since 2012 has drawn comparisons with Mao Zedong.

Xi has distanced himself from the turmoil so far. But the scale and persistence of the unrest, combined with growing street violence, may force him to get involved – or risk losing his “strongman” image.

Probably to Beijing’s surprise, the demonstrations over a proposed extradition law have continued despite an unusual, albeit partial government climbdown. That points to deeper grievances about Beijing’s slow-burn attempts to curb Hong Kong’s freedoms, the lack of full democratic rights and, more generally, the threatening atmosphere created by Xi’s aggressive authoritarianism.

This wider context, particularly unsettling for Hong Kong residents, encompasses Xi’s record of unbending hostility to political pluralism in mainland China, ever more pervasive internet and media censorship, increased social regimentation, and human rights abuses – notably the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities such as Xinjiang’s Muslim Uighur community.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...tests-personal-challenge-strongman-xi-jinping

In a candid speech to the National People’s Congress in March, the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, warned of the dangers of rising discontent. “There is still public dissatisfaction in many areas, such as education, healthcare, elderly care, housing, food and drug safety, and income distribution. Last year saw a number of public safety incidents and major workplace incidents,” Li said.

Xi will also worry that the turbulence in Hong Kong could take on an insurrectionary nature, especially if – as state media have already claimed – it is fomented by external actors. One obvious scapegoat is Taiwan, with which tensions have been steadily rising due to Xi’s tough reunification stance.

The prosperous, democratic and de facto independent island nation of Taiwan, supported by Washington, stands as a permanent rebuke to China’s autocratic ruler. Xi would do almost anything to prevent Hong Kong following its example. Another related concern is that Hong Kong could be caught up in escalating rivalry with the US and its allies over control of the South China and East China seas.

Yet Xi probably has little cause to worry about meddling by Trump. The US president rarely shows any interest in human rights or pro-democracy struggles, and has other fish to fry with China. Britain, too, has mostly kept its voice down. In need of China’s goodwill post-Brexit, it worries about upsetting a relationship already strained by the Huawei row. On Monday, Beijing bluntly told London to keep its nose out.

The greatest fear of all, if the Hong Kong crisis deepens, is that China’s leaders may resort to brute force, as happened in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago. One reason why Xi will want to avoid a repeat is the storm of international condemnation, and the damage to China’s expanding power, reputation and economy that could ensue.

The Tiananmen massacre took place under a virtual media blackout. Mass murder would be harder to hide this time around.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

Early on 5 June, China made the world’s first sea-based orbital launch in five years, sending a Long March 11 rocket toward orbit. Amazingly, the event was filmed by a satellite passing overhead.

The video shows, through cloud cover, the ignition and launch of a Long March 11 solid-fueled rocket from a specially converted platform in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula, at 04:06 UTC.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk...tures-footage-of-chinese-rocket-launch-at-sea

The launch was China’s first attempt at a sea launch, a capability which will allow it to carry out launches at low latitudes, from which rockets heading into low-inclination orbits get a boost from the greater rotational speed of the Earth at the equator, helping them toward the 7.9 km/s velocity required to achieve orbit. This means reduced fuel requirements or the possibility of sending heavier payloads into orbit. Sea launches could also reduce the amount of rocket debris which falls on populated areas after launches from China’s inland satellite launch sites.

 

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Laitan tänne

Ihmisoikeusjärjestö Amnesty International vaatii kansainvälisiä toimia Filippiinien huumesodan lopettamiseksi. Amnestyn mukaan YK:n pitäisi heti tutkia sotaa, joka saattaa olla rikos ihmisyyttä vastaan.

Filippiinien presidentti Rodrigo Duterte aloitti verisen taiston Filippiineillä vuonna 2016 huumeiden käyttäjiä ja myyjiä vastaan.

Virallisten laskelmien mukaan huumesodassa on kuollut 5 300–6 600 ihmistä. Ihmisoikeusjärjestöt ovat kuitenkin arvelleet, että uhreja olisi 12 000–20 000.

Amnestyn julkistaman raportin mukaan Duterten hallinnon laittomasti tappamien ihmisten määrä ja väärinkäytösten laajuus on saavuttanut sellaiset mittasuhteet, että voidaan puhua rikoksista ihmisyyttä vastaan.

Amnesty on viime vuonna tutkinut 27:ää surmaa Bulacanin alueella lähellä pääkaupunki Manilaa. Järjestö kutsuu aluetta "maan verisimmäksi kuolemankentäksi".

Duterten hallinto kiistää, että poliisi olisi tappanut ketään laittomasti. Toisaalta presidentti on toistuvasti uhkaillut huumekauppiaita kuolemalla. Monet surmatut ovat menettäneet henkensä pienten huumerikosten vuoksi.

Viime viikolla huomiota herätti huumeratsia, jossa sai surmansa kolmevuotias lapsi. Filippiinien entinen poliisipäällikkö Ronald dela Rosa on puolusti virkavallan toimia huumeratsiassa kuittaamalla tylysti, että sellaista sattuu.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10866584

 

[ctg]

Conflict has broken out between hundreds of protesters and police in riot gear in Hong Kong after tens of thousands of protesters marched peacefully earlier in the day to keep up the pressure on the government to withdraw its controversial extradition bill.

The march, which continued late into the night, was the first since the storming and vandalising of Hong Kong’s legislature by protesters last Monday, a move that drew strong condemnation from the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. The extradition bill – which would allow suspects to be removed from the semi-autonomous city to face China’s flawed justice system – has been the subject of several mass rallies over the past month.

The demonstration descended into chaos shortly before 11pm local time on Sunday with most protesters retreating and yelling “Leave now! Leave now!” as police in riot gear began to advance towards them. Police used truncheons to beat protesters, who were trapped as police advanced towards them in both directions, and pressed some of them on to the ground.

Six people were arrested, according to a statement from the police just after 3am Monday morning. One protester was detained for “failing to produce proof of identity” and the five others were arrested for assaulting a police officer or obstructing the police.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-protesters-demands-widen-as-rallies-continue