Australian Teacher Vandalised District Council Candidate's Posters, Fined Over $2000

Ms NUNAN, an Australian female private English tutor used a black marker to draw on over 4 banners of Iris Cheung, a District Council Election candidate from pro-Beijing camp in early November. Staff members discovered the graffiti and reported to Cheung, who called the police afterwards. Ms Nunan remained silent after the Police arrived.

The case was mentioned at the Eastern Magistrates' Courts today. Ms Nunan admitted to a Vandalism charge. She had to compensate Mr Cheung’s loss for $240 and pay a fine for $2000.

According to the defendant lawyer, Ms Nunan has been living in Hong Kong since 1994. She revealed she is earning a weekly wage of less than $2000, and her mother is currently undergoing chemo therapy. The Magistrate Ms Chainrai Bina, said Ms Nunan’s behaviour was intolerable and thus sentenced her with the fine.

Source: SingTao Daily #17Dec #Australian #Teacher

2020.05.20: Taiwan inauguration - President Tsai Ing-wen pledges to expand international presence

Congratulations to President Tsai!
Taiwan is working hard to gain international recognition and to develop its economy under her leadership in the next 4 years.

Taiwan's pandemic preparedness under Tsai yielded an extraordinary result in combating the coronavirus, despite the lack of recognition from international bodies. Furthermore, they have also been promoting the 'Taiwan Can Help' campaign, where #Taiwan has been donating surgical face masks and other medical supplies to countries in need.

Despite all the efforts put in by Taiwan, the World Health Organization (#WHO ) has made the skewed decision not to invited Taiwan to this week’s meeting about the pandemic, highly possibly due to pressure from #China .

The slogan anti-pandemic campaign, 'Taiwan Can Help', was written in the skies of Canberra and Sydney over the weekend with the help of airplanes, by 26 Taiwanese doctors working in Australia. They initiated a pro-Taiwan drive on the internet. hoping that the #Australian government will support Taiwan’s admission as a country into the WHO.

#democracy #pandemic #TaiwanCanHelp #WHO #Taiwan


Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-eSUkSGyjE&feature=youtu.be

China Blasts Australia’s Decision to Cancel Belt and Road Deal

China has slammed Australia’s decision to cancel agreements between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Victoria state government, signaling a worsening of ties between the nations.

The Australian federal government scrapped both the memorandum of understanding and framework agreement signed between Victoria and China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing’s top economic planning body, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in an emailed statement Wednesday. She described the deals as “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations

Source: Bloomberg #Apr22

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-21/australia-cancels-state-s-deals-with-china-s-belt-and-road

#China #Australian #Beijing #Victoria #BeltRoad

China-backed Confucius Institutes face closure under veto laws

Australian universities face having their controversial Confucius Institutes shut down within months, with the University of Sydney among the first to submit contracts for scrutiny under the Commonwealth’s foreign veto scheme.

At least one centre - RMIT University’s Chinese Medicine Confucius Institute - will close this year, with the university saying it would cease operations due to budget pressures caused by COVID-19.

The institutes, which are hosted by 13 Australian universities in partnership with Chinese universities, have come under scrutiny from the federal government amid concerns they function as a plank of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda effort.
 
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald #May10

https://t.co/BuMwUZ2QSS
 
#China #Australian #COVID19 #University

Australian PM calls for WTO reform as tensions with China mount
 
The World Trade Organization must have a binding dispute settlement system to address the growing use of "economic coercion", Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, as Canberra moves to win the support of G7 nations in its dispute with China.

Relations with China, already rocky after Australia banned Huawei from its nascent 5G broadband networking in 2018, cooled further after Canberra called this year for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, first reported in central China last year.

China responded by imposing tariffs on Australian commodities, including wine and barley and limited imports of Australian beef, coal and grapes, moves described by the United States as "economic coercion".

Source: Reuters #Jun09

https://www.reuters.com/business/australian-pm-call-wto-reform-tensions-with-china-mount-2021-06-08/
 
#Australian #WTO #China #COVID19

Australia Draws a Line on China

Australian defense officials and politicians alike are striking an increasingly hawkish tone on China. This week, it was revealed that a former top general warned his troops last year of the “high likelihood” of war with China. This comes just days after Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton raised eyebrows with his assessment that Chinese bullying of Taiwan could lead to a regional conflict.

Canberra’s more muscular posture, coupled with an increase in defense spending even amid the pandemic, spells an unusually confrontational approach toward China for a country that once tried to balance its economic relations with its largest trading partner against its decades-old defense commitments to the United States. Washington is repaying Canberra’s efforts, redoubling diplomatic and military engagement with Australian counterparts to jointly plan any response to Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.

Source: Foreign Policy #May04

https://bit.ly/352shy3
 
#Australian #China

Has a 'gold rush' mindset blinded Australian businesses pursuing 'mercurial' China market?

It was in the mid-2000s during a regular meeting with a client that Bob Cronin realised he'd grossly underestimated the challenges of doing business in China.

They were heady days in the bilateral relationship between Canberra and Beijing when the sky seemed the limit for enterprising Australians in the Middle Kingdom.

Yet the veteran newspaperman got a harsh reality check not long into his stint editing the Shanghai Daily, the English language Chinese journal then part-owned by Australian billionaire media proprietor Kerry Stokes.

Source: ABC #May23

https://t.co/9ozLkmuVtw

#Australian #China #Canberra #Beijing

Canada looks on as Biden rallies other allies to counter China

The White House has confirmed that U.S. President Joe Biden plans to meet later this year with his Japanese, Australian and Indian counterparts — a four-country grouping dubbed the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue” or QUAD.

The announcement came just days after Chinese Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping marked the centenary of the party with an incendiary oratory that was short on Marxism but long on nationalist promises “to build a new type of international relations.”

This is Xi’s doctrine of “the community of the common destiny of mankind” under future People’s Republic of China (PRC) global domination, which includes making irrelevant the current institutions that promote peace, prosperity and justice, such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, G-20 and G-7.

Source: The Star #Jul21

https://t.co/tyj0TikKOi

#Canada #Biden #China #Japanese #Australian #Indian #QUAD

#47Democrats #PrimaryElection #MassArrest
"To Plea or Not To Plea guilty" is a queation that suffocates defendants

47 lawmakers, academia, and activist are being suspected of organising and participating in the primary election in 2020. They are being accused of "conspiring subversion of state".

In the 139-page of case study, it revealed that 5 of the defendants were classified as "major organisers" - #BennyTai, a legal scholar; #AuNokHin, a former legislator; #ChiuKaYin and #ChungKamLun, former district council members; and #GordonNg, an activist.

Among them, only Gordon Ng decided to plea not guilty.

Gordon Ng Concern Group wrote a post on social media after the release of the restrictions on reporting the cases, referring to Ng's perspective that he is "definitely not believing" that he had violated the law,  and therefore, "I will face it despite being afraid”.

Ng said that he spent most of his time thinking about whether or not to plead guilty since being charged one and a half years ago. This question "makes him breathless" as his answer would most likely affect the second half of his life, with too many factors to consider.

He mentioned up until now, no defendant under the #NSL case has successfully been acquitted of their charges and described the space for discusiion, as an unknown as it required a lot of human and material resources. He asked, "is there a better way to use the resources spent on me?"

Ng understands that if he pleads guilty, his one-third of his original sentence may be cut. Yet, he is still unsure whether he is classified as a "main person", "with large crime" or "proactive participant". The category can seriously affect his sentence, from under three years to life imprisonment.

In addition, Ng stated that the case caught local and international attention, and as a result, he reflects on whether he has the responsibility to consider the view of civic society. He is an #Australian citizen, and the Australian government once published a statement raising concerns on the case. Therefore, he reflects, "Will my defence statement affect their views on the case?"

Gordon Ng admitted that he had no answer for most of his questions, but a fundamental question struck him - Do you think you had violated the law? "No, I absolutely don't think so. Therefore, I decide not to plead."

There is no way for him to get rid of the unknowns. He can only face it with courage. "I have prepared to fight for myself on the court. That is the largest battle in my life."

[Editor note: Gordon Ng is not a candidate for the election nor represents any political parties or organisations but a passerby on #LIHKG (named Lee Bak Lou, indicating liberal). He was the initiator of #LegCoPetition. It is a petition aimed to quantify people's voices and to call people to vote for the winners in the primary election and not to vote for candidates who do not support, participate or comply with the primary election. This petition puts pressure on candidates to adhere to the election results.]

Source: InMedia, GordonNgConcernGroup Facebook Page #Aug18

https://bit.ly/3Ctdhek
https://bit.ly/3Rb3rSD

Read more about the case:

Jan 6, 2021:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/27802

Feb 28, 2021:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/28799

Mar 1-2, 2021:
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/28876
.