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New Zealand calls on China to curb tensions in ‘contested’ Pacific

New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins urges China to help ease tensions in the Pacific, safeguard trade routes, and manage conflicts in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

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WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins urged China on Monday to help curb tensions in a “more contested, less predictable” Pacific, and to preserve access to critical trade routes.

China is rapidly expanding its diplomatic, economic and military footprint in the Pacific, often jostling for influence with the United States and its allies.

Nearly half of New Zealand’s trade passes through the South China Sea, said Hipkins, who led a trade delegation to Beijing last month and met with President Xi Jinping.

The way China exerts its clout in the world is a “major driver” in escalating strategic competition, especially in the Asia-Pacific, Hipkins told the China Business Summit in Auckland.

Unimpeded access to shipping and air routes was “vital” to New Zealand, he added.

“New Zealand is concerned about a worsening strategic environment and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region in particular in places like the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,” the prime minister said.

“We have direct interests in these areas and are therefore focused on the need for tensions to be carefully managed and de-escalated in the wider interests of the Pacific,” he continued.

“And we look to China to play its part in this regard.”

China has in recent years ramped up military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its territory, vowing to take it one day — by force if necessary.

Beijing also maintains sweeping, contested claims over the South China Sea.

At the same time, China is seeking to grow its influence in the South Pacific, notably making inroads in the Solomon Islands, with which it signed a secretive defence pact last year.

This month, China rolled out the red carpet for pro-Beijing Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and inked a raft of deals, including one allowing it to extend its police presence in the island nation until 2025.

Wellington has been increasingly vocal in recent years about human rights issues in China and any potential militarisation of the Pacific.

Hipkins said New Zealand would talk “candidly, but respectfully” with China’s leadership about their differences.

“Our region is becoming more contested, less predictable, and less secure,” he said.

“In this increasingly complex global environment, our relationship with China will continue to require careful management.”

Wellington’s Western allies have long been concerned about what they regard as New Zealand’s overdependence on trade with China.

But Hipkins said New Zealand’s exporters now enjoyed better terms of trade in other “equally significant” markets after striking free trade agreements with Britain, the European Union and a major trans-Pacific trade bloc.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

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1 year ago

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26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

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1 year ago

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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