Day: May 29, 2024

Tbilisi rocked by clashes over ‘foreign influence’ bill for third consecutive night  Yahoo News UK

NPR News: 05-29-2024 7PM EDT

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Armenian FM, Iranian Acting Foreign Minister hold phone call  ARMENPRESS

By Chris Powers

(EurActiv) — Immigration will decide who wins the UK general elections scheduled for 4 July, said former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, as his party Reform UK hopes to usurp the Conservatives from second place and become the main opposition to the Labour Party.

“This is the immigration election”, Farage posted on X on Tuesday (28 May).

However, according to a YouGov survey, immigration is the third major concern for British citizens.

Economy and health top the list, scoring 51% and 45% respectively. Migration and asylum scored 40%, the highest since the immediate aftermath of the 2016 referendum on EU membership, a campaign which relied heavily on anti-immigration arguments.

When it comes to polls, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has retained a 20-plus percentage point lead over the Conservatives since Prime Minister Rushi Sunak took over in October 2022.

While the political parties have not yet released their manifestoes, the Labour campaign is expected to focus on the economy and health, with migration taking a less prominent role.

But while the interests of voters are elsewhere, the Conservative government’s persistent attempts to pass a bill to deport irregular migrants and asylum seekers to Rwanda, has taken up plenty of column inches.

However, the bill has sparked outrage from human rights and refugee groups, copycat attempts from various EU leaders, and a high court battle.

Anti-migrant, but anti which migrant?

While Sunak and Farage are both campaigning on the theme of migration, they seem to be targeting different groups.

Sunak’s Rwanda plan aims to deter people from trying to enter the UK in ways many British stakeholders consider illegal.

When it comes to attempts by irregular migrants and asylum seekers to cross the English Channel in small boats, the three largest nationalities making the crossings are Vietnamese, Albanian, and Afghan.

According to the UK’s Home Office data, the numbers decreased from almost 46,000 in 2022 to just under 30,000 in 2023. Numbers for 2024 suggest a similar trajectory to both 2021 and last year.

Meanwhile, Farage in a recent interview for Sky News, focused more on less specific groupings: Muslims, those who allegedly cannot speak English, and the Conservatives, who he claimed had not done enough to reduce migration legal or otherwise.

A graphic displayed during the interview,  showed the largest sources of immigrants during 2023, as well as EU figures, representing a dramatic change compared to 2019.

Particularly, 2023 saw a net decrease in the number of EU citizens living in the UK by 75,000. In the same year India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and Ghana accounted for more than half a million immigrants.

Meanwhile, the Reform Party is polling in third place with 14% of the vote, five points behind the Conservatives and two points ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

However, vote share is no guarantee of parliamentary seats in the UK’s first-past-the-post system, especially for smaller parties.

By Matthew Leung 

Hong Kong businessman Herbert Chow, who fled the city after his pro-democracy children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck was targeted by the government, has surrounded his U.K. home with floodlights and surveillance cameras as an unexplained death in a Hong Kong spying case sends shockwaves through the exile community.

Chow, who now runs a home decoration business, wound up Chickeeduck and left the city in 2023, hoping to place himself beyond the reach of the Hong Kong authorities.

But he was already keenly aware that overseas Hong Kongers were being targeted by agents and supporters of the Chinese state, with secret Chinese police stations reported in a number of countries.

The store chain, which was a prominent member of the “Yellow Economic Circle” of businesses that supported the 2019 protest movement, was raided by national security police in 2021, after it displayed a statue of “Lady Liberty,” a symbol of the protest movement.

Chow knew he could be a target, and set to work making a fortress of his British home.

“When you approach the gate to my house after dark, the entire front garden lights up,” Chow said. “I think this is a bit of a deterrent.”

“We can see now [from this Hong Kong spying case] that they actually go to people’s houses looking for them, so I think I need to reappraise the whole gate area,” he said.

“I want to make it so that I can film anyone who may be following or monitoring me … so I need to install some cameras to get a horizontal image,” Chow said.

Former Marine found dead

Chow’s review of his personal security comes after Matthew Trickett, a former British Marine turned private security guard who had been accused of spying for the Hong Kong authorities, was found dead in a British park on May 19.

While police have since concluded that there was nothing suspicious about his death, accusations on the charge sheet that Trickett, together with Bill Yuen, an employee of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and British immigration officer Peter Wai forced entry into a U.K. home on May 1 have sent shockwaves of fear through the Hong Kong exile community.

Yuen and Wai are scheduled to stand trial in February 2025, and have been released on bail.

When he arrived in Britain, Chow also bought two cars, one to use as a decoy, to help him evade surveillance by Chinese agents, he told RFA Cantonese.

“I have two identical cars … so as to confuse anyone following me,” he said. “At the time I wondered if I was too nervous, but now that we’ve seen them engaging in such ridiculous espionage activities, I think I should have done more.”

So far, the only trouble Chow has experienced was when a car window was smashed and some items stolen from inside, he said.

But he believes it’s only a matter of time, citing warnings from the Hong Kong government that “fugitives” from the city — 14 of whom already have bounties on their heads — will be pursued for the rest of their lives.

“Chris Tang said that people with warrants for their arrest will be targeted first under Article 23,” Chow said, in a reference to a second national security law passed in March that extends the scope of the crackdown on pro-democracy activists and public critics of the authorities that began in the wake of the 2019 protests.

“The national security department has had a budget of HK$8 billionapproved,” he said. “I think my turn will come.”

Spy charges

British police on Monday charged three people with spying for the Hong Kong government after a nationwide operation that saw 11 arrests using powers under new national security legislation.

Wai and Yuen have been charged under the United Kingdom’s National Security Act 2023 with “assisting a foreign intelligence service,” and “foreign interference,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on May 13.

“The foreign intelligence service to which the above charges relate is that of Hong Kong,” the statement said.

The Hong Kong government has demanded full disclosure from the British government, while China has slammed the charges as “groundless and slanderous.”

The three men were accused of assisting a foreign intelligence servicebetween December and May by “agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception” in Britain, according to the charges.

A second charge alleges that Yuen, Wai and Trickett conducted “foreign interference” by forcing entry into a residential address in Britain on May 1.

All three men appeared in court only to confirm their personal details, and entered no plea. They were all released on bail. 

By the time of their next court appearance on May 24, Trickett was dead.

The indictment named U.K.-based former pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law, exiled activist Finn Lau and veteran labor unionist Christopher Mung, all of whom have bounties on their heads and warrants for their arrest issued by Hong Kong’s national security police amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent, as among the targets of the alleged activities.

By Jason Gutierrez

Beijing’s new threat of detaining fishermen in South China Sea waters it considers its own marks an escalation in maritime tensions, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Wednesday.

He was commenting in public for the first time on the Chinese coast guard’s newly issued orders that call for the maritime force to detain foreign vessels and crew suspected of trespassing into Beijing-claimed waters in the disputed waterway. 

The order is to take effect June 15. China earlier this month began enforcing an annual four-month fishing ban in the contested waters.

“The new policy of threatening to detain our own citizens, that is different. That is an escalation of the situation. So, yes, it is now very worrisome,” Marcos told reporters, according to a statement released by his communications office.

Marcos was speaking in Brunei, where he wrapped up a state visit before going to Singapore, where he is scheduled to give a keynote speech on Friday at the  Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level international security conference.

Marcos is expected to highlight the South China Sea during his speech in Singapore. Top political and security leaders from dozens of countries, including from rival superpowers the United States and China, are expected to attend the Shangri-La meetings.

On May 15, the Chinese coast guard issued an order authorizing its personnel to detain for up to 30 days – and 60 days, in some cases – foreign boats and nationals suspected of trespassing in South China Sea waters claimed by Beijing.

Manila hit back days later, calling the order “illegal” and warning against repercussions if it was implemented.

The Philippines has also formally protested this year’s fishing ban by China.

The four-month fishing moratorium began on May 1 and is to last until Sept. 16 in areas in the South China Sea that are “north of the 12 degrees North latitude. That includes waters considered to be part of Manila’s exclusive economic zone.

Filipino fishermen have threatened to defy the detention order, and the Philippine Coast Guard said it was ready to aid them in case they were harassed.

China said the new policy aims to standardize law enforcement and better uphold maritime order.

“It is consistent with universal practices. Individuals and entities have no need for concern as long as they have not done anything illicit,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on Wednesday.

“[It] is the Philippines, not China, that has escalated the situation and made repeated provocations in the South China Sea,” she told reporters.

“China’s door of dialogue and communication with the Philippines remains open, but it’s important to note that dialogue requires sincerity and whatever is agreed in dialogue must be acted upon, rather than talking about the need for dialogue while continuing to make provocations.”

In Brunei, Marcos said Manila was pursuing back-channel efforts with China to try and cool down bilateral tensions over the waterway, especially in Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal), which both countries claim.

The shoals lie within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, but Beijing lately has been intercepting Filipino boats trying to reach waters around them.

“You should try everything. You don’t know what effort is going to be successful,” Marcos said. “So, (at) any point of contact that I can establish I will use it, and at every level, at the leaders’ level, at the ministerial, sub-ministerial, private as long as it gives us, brings us progress in terms of resolving these (territorial problems).”

“And if we can get to that, then we can move to the next step and to see if there is a way to resolve all these claims and so that we can all go about our business in a peaceful way and continue to try and develop our countries. There are always, always efforts at every level,” he said.

The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam as well as Taiwan have competing claims in the South China Sea.

‘A significant recalibration’

Marcos’ upcoming speech in Singapore reflects how the international community is keeping a close eye on the South China Sea, considered a geopolitical flashpoint, according to an expert based in Manila.

Many countries are watching the Philippines because “the country is undergoing a significant recalibration of its foreign and security policy,” geopolitical analyst Don McLain Gill told BenarNews.

“Manila intends to play an active role in securing the established order in the Indo-Pacific through securing its sovereignty and sovereign rights based on international law,” he said.

But while it would significantly increase Marcos’ profile, his speech is unlikely to be “a game changer for China’s policy trajectory towards Manila,” Gill said.

China claims historical rights over most of the South China Sea, although a landmark international arbitration ruling in 2016, in a case brought by Manila against Beijing, rejected those claims entirely.

Jeoffrey Maitem contributed to this report from Manila.