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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | Jiang Zemin passes away
Jiang Zemin passed away due to leukemia and multiple organ failure in Shanghai at 12:13 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2022, at the age of 96, it was announced on Wednesday.
The announcement was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the State Council of the PRC, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Central Military Commissions of the CPC and the PRC.
It was announced in a letter addressing the whole Party, the entire military and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups.
Top 2 | Putin vows to prioritize defense industry, Ukraine gains support for its EU, NATO membership
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo signed a declaration of support for Ukraine's membership to the European Union and NATO on Saturday during De Croo's working visit to Kyiv, CNN reported.
Zelenskyy thanked Belgium for the joint declaration. He said this document testifies Belgium's support for our movement towards full membership in the European Union and NATO.
The Ukrainian president also expressed his gratitude to Belgium for "being ready to provide the necessary power generators and other equipment that is now vitally necessary for Ukrainian society" in the wake of Ukraine's power outages after Russian missile attacks.
Sergey Kovalenko, chief operating officer of YASNO, which provides energy to Kyiv, said the situation in the city has improved but still remained "quite difficult." He indicated that residents should have at least four hours of power per day.
Top 3 |** Chinese astronauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu to carry out Shenzhou-15 manned mission**
Three taikonauts – Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu – will supervise the final phase of construction of China Space Station during the Shenzhou-15 mission, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced at a press conference on Monday.
The three Chinese astronauts will stay in the space station for half a year. They will briefly stay with the three Shenzhou-14 crew members, who are preparing to head back to Earth.
For the first time, China's manned space program will run two Shenzhou spacecraft concurrently, creating new challenges.
Top 4 | EU proposal would send proceeds of frozen Russian funds to Ukraine
The European Commission proposed a plan on Wednesday to compensate Ukraine for its damages caused by the conflict with proceeds from investing Russian funds frozen under sanctions.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that the frozen funds would go to Ukraine "to compensate for the damages caused to the country," already estimated at around 600 billion euros ($621 billion).
"We have blocked 300 billion euros of the Russian Central Bank reserves and we have frozen 19 billion euros of Russian oligarchs' money," she said.
Moscow says seizing its funds or those of its citizens amounts to theft.
Top 5 |** PLA says it warned U.S. cruiser off China's territorial waters**
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said on Tuesday it had warned the USS Chancellorsville guided-missile cruiser off China's territorial waters as the warship sailed near the Nansha Islands.
The USS Chancellorsville's "illegal intrusion" was done without approval by the Chinese government, PLA Southern Theater Command spokesperson Tian Junli said, adding that the PLA has been tracking and monitoring the cruiser with both air and naval deployments.
The actions of the U.S. military have seriously violated China's sovereignty and security and served as further proof that it is militarizing the South China Sea, fully demonstrating that the U.S. is "a security risk maker" in the region, Tian said.
China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters is irrefutable, Tian said, adding that his command will remain on high alert and will firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as peace and stability in the region.
Top 6 | Iran beefs up border security near Iraq, citing 'separatist' threats
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has stepped up military presence near the western and northwestern borders of the country to deal with "separatist" threats, an IRGC commander said on Friday.
Armored IRGC units and special forces have been deployed "to prevent the infiltration of terrorists affiliated with separatist groups based in northern Iraq and the smuggling of weapons into the country," Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC Ground Force, was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.
The forces would decisively confront insecurity caused by "evil-doers and anti-Iranian separatist terrorist groups in the northwest of the country," Pakpour added.
Iraq has recently issued a similar directive to beef up border security to prevent what Yahya Rasul, spokesperson for the commander in chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, said were more air strikes from the Iranian side.
Top 7 | Former Australian PM Scott Morrison censured over secret appointments
Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was censured on Wednesday over his self-appointment to five portfolios during the COVID-19 pandemic, which he kept secret from the public and many of his own cabinet colleagues, local media has reported.
The historic motion, brought by the ruling Labor party, passed by 86 votes to 50 in the country's lower house, marking the first time a former prime minister has been censured by parliament, though the motion is symbolic in nature.
Top 8 | 'Stop slandering China' says embassy as Sunak signals end of China-UK 'golden era'
China's embassy in London has given a firm response to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's first major foreign policy speech, after the UK leader said the "golden era" of relations with China was "over," accusing Beijing of being a "systemic challenge" to Britain's values and interests.
Sunak stressed the UK could not ignore China's significance in world affairs such as "global economic stability or issues like climate change." But he said "the naive idea" that the UK could try to use trade to push China towards "social and political reform" was also finished.
The UK Prime Minister revealed that he is taking a long-term view on relations with Beijing who he believes is "conspicuously competing for global influence." His focus will be on strengthening resilience to policies that are not aligned with Westminster's and protecting economic security.
Top 9 | Oath Keepers founder convicted of sedition in U.S. Capitol attack plot
The founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group, Stewart Rhodes, was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn the U.S. President Joe Biden's election, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
A Washington, D.C., jury found Rhodes guilty of sedition after three days of deliberations in the nearly two-month-long trial that showcased the group's efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House at all costs.
Rhodes was acquitted of two other conspiracy charges. A co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, who led the antigovernment group's Florida chapter, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy, while three other associates were cleared of that charge. Jurors found all five defendants guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding: Congress' certification of Biden's electoral victory.
Top 10 | Iranian parliament approves bill for Iran's accession to SCO
The Iranian parliament on Sunday approved a bill for Iran's membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with overwhelming majority.
Abolfazl Amouei, the spokesman for the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that the parliament's approval of Iran's SCO membership contains an international message of "Iran's multilateralism tendency in the field of foreign policy."
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian welcomed the parliament's move on Twitter, saying that "the categorical vote for the bill on the accession of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the SCO is indicative of our country's resolve and seriousness to develop regional, international and economic cooperation and bolster (the country's) approach to Asia."
"The approach of multilateralism is the reality of this century," he said.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
