Craig Hill
Sunda Strait
Asylum seekers drown on way to Australia
About 20 people, mostly children under 15 years old, died when an asylum seeker vessel sank off the southern coast of Java on its way to Australia. Adjunct Commissioner Warsono from the Agrabinta Police has confirmed that 25 people were rescued before the search was called off at nightfall. He could not say how many … Continue reading
Indonesia still stalling on asylum rescue effort; Australia expresses concern
Indonesian rescue authorities were last night still unable to find survivors or likely search sites for possibly two asylum-seeker boats that disappeared in the Sunda Strait last week. The weekend passed without Basarnas, the search and rescue agency, initiating searches for between 60 and 120 passengers thought to be missing. Basarnas officials said yesterday they … Continue reading
August 27 1883 Krakatau explodes
On August 27th 1883, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people. Krakatau exhibited … Continue reading
Most Recent Posts Post on My Blog About China: China News
The vanishing allure of doing business in China
It is nothing new for foreign firms to endure shakedowns by the Chinese Communist Party. As far back as revolutionary times, Chairman Mao’s victorious troops did not directly confiscate foreign-owned assets as their Bolshevik forerunners had done in Russia. Instead, they wore them down with higher taxes and fines so big that eventually companies gave […]
Wikipedia blames pro-China infiltration for bans
Wikipedia has suffered an “infiltration” that sought to advance the aims of China, the US non-profit organisation that owns the volunteer-edited encyclopaedia has said. The Wikimedia Foundation told BBC News the infiltration had threatened the “very foundations of Wikipedia”. The foundation banned seven editors linked to a mainland China group. Wikimedians of Mainland China accused […]
Diaries of former Mao aide spark custody battle over unofficial history of China
Today, “Li materials” are the subject of a legal battle between Stanford University and Mr. Li’s widow in Beijing. This is a battle for custody of an unofficial history of China. In millions of handwritten Chinese characters, Mr. Li documents his early days in the party, the revolution that brought him to power and his […]
World’s dirtiest cities list raises issue: Why don’t politicians call out China?
Ponder this: A new tally of global cities’ emissions finds that the top 25 are responsible for 52% of the planet’s urban greenhouse gas emissions. Twenty-three of those are in China. New York City is the first American city to appear, at No. 26. Out of the top 75, just four other American cities are listed […]
Cadence Column: Asia, September 13, 2021
The easiest solution to China’s escalating situation in the South Sea is to enforce China’s own formal statements at face value. China says they respect other countries and do not want to militarize the South Sea. Leave it at that. Any disrespect toward other countries is not at the behest of Xijinping. Any militarization of […]
Why is Iran so keen on joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation?
What Happened: Iran became an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – originally comprised of China, Russia, and 4 Central Asian republics – back in 2005. In the 16 years since, Tehran has consistently pushed for an upgrade to full membership, particularly after the SCO underwent its first expansion, adding India and Pakistan, in 2017. […]
How China hijacked the war on terror to commit genocide in Xinjiang
Two decades after the 9/11 attacks spawned the U.S. government’s self-declared “Global War on Terrorism,” the nation that responded to it with the most aggressive regulatory, policing and social policies is thousands of miles from Ground Zero. China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party exploited the international revulsion toward terrorism sparked by the 9/11 attacks to reframe […]
China extends a fast helping hand to the Taliban
China has reassured the Taliban that it is ready to begin development activities in Afghanistan via its ambitious multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative (BRI), as the war-torn country drifts toward an economic meltdown. In what some see as Beijing’s tacit approval of the Afghan militant group’s interim government, China announced on Wednesday (September 8) US$31 […]
China’s population enters ‘deep aging’ in many major cities
China is facing a population crisis of increasing urgency, with 149 cities shown in recent census figures to have 14 percent of their residents over the age of 65. A recent analysis by the state-run China Business News (CBN) found that 149 cities in China have now entered “deep aging,” the middle state on a […]
China weighing occupation of former U.S. air base at Bagram in Afghanistan
China is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. The Chinese military is currently conducting a feasibility study about the effect of sending workers, soldiers and other staff related to its foreign economic investment program known as the […]
