China denies US Navy ship visits
Sat photos appear to show Chinese APCs near HK
WASHINGTON, Aug 14, (AP): US officials say the Chinese government has denied requests for two US Navy ships to make port visits to Hong Kong amid civil unrest.
Cmdr. Nate Christensen, deputy spokesman for the US Pacific Fleet, said Tuesday the USS Green Bay had been scheduled to visit Hong Kong on Aug. 17 and the USS Lake Erie was scheduled to visit in September.
Christensen said it was up to China to say why it denied the requests.
He said the US Navy expects port visits to Hong Kong to resume. The last Navy ship to visit was the USS Blue Ridge in April 2019.
Riot police clashed briefly with prodemocracy protesters at Hong Kong’s airport Tuesday on a second day of demonstrations that caused mass cancellations and disruptions.
In other news, satellite photos show what appear to be armored personnel carriers and other vehicles belonging to the China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police parked in a sports complex in the city of Shenzhen, in what some have interpreted as a threat from Beijing to use increased force against
their passengers “allowed to receive muchneeded humanitarian aid.”
“To leave people who have fled war and violence in Libya on the high seas in this weather would be to inflict suffering upon suffering,” the envoy said.
The captain of the Open Arms, Marc Reig, sent a letter Monday to the Spanish Embassy in Malta asking Madrid to grant asylum to 31 minors on his ship. A senior Spanish official said Tuesday that Reig’s request carries no legal weight because the captain doesn’t have authority to seek protection for the minors.
Two charity groups that are operating the Ocean Viking rescue ship – Doctors Without Borders and sea rescue group SOS Mediterranee – also formally asked Italy and Malta to allow the 356 migrants aboard that vessel to be allowed to disembark.
The limbo of the Open Arms and Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking is the latest in a string of standoffs that kept Europe-bound migrants at sea in miserable conditions.
Southern nations that have been the main pro-democracy protesters across the border in Hong Kong.
The pictures collected on Monday by Maxar’s WorldView show 500 or more vehicles sitting on and around the soccer stadium at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center just across the harbor from Asian financial hub that has been rocked by more than two months of near-daily street demonstrations.
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Chinese state media have said only that the exercises had been planned before hand and were not directly related to the unrest in Hong Kong, although they came shortly after the central government in Beijing said the protests were beginning to show the “sprouts of terrorism.”
President Donald Trump tweeted that US intelligence believes that the Chinese government is moving troops to its border with Hong Kong and that, “Everyone should be calm and safe!”
Beijing has been apparently reluctant to send in police or army units from the mainland or to mobilize the People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong to quell the unrest. It’s seen as mindful
arrival points since 2015 – notably Italy, but also Malta and Greece – have complained of feeling abandoned by their European Union partners to cope with the influx.
Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, reiterated Tuesday his intent to ensure that the ships don’t enter Italian ports.
Differences among EU member nations over how to manage mass migration have sparked a political crisis in Europe, while attempts to reform the bloc’s asylum system
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of the devastating effect that would have both on the territory’s reputation as a safe and stable place to invest in, and as indication of the Communist Party’s failure to win over the hearts and minds of the city’s 7.3 million residents, 22 years after the former British colony was handed over to China.
It would also be a shocking reminder of the PLA’s bloody crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrations centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 30 years ago, which remains a taboo subject in China but is memorialized with a massive rally and march each year in Hong Kong.
Yet, mainland China is believed to have already dispatched officers to fortify the ranks of the Hong Kong police, and may also have planted decoys among the protesters in order to encourage more violent acts that could eventually turn ordinary Hong Kongers against the protest movement.
Such a change in sentiments does not yet appear to have happened despite rising violence surrounding protests and the shutdown of the city’s usually bustling international airport for two days after it was occupied by demonstrators.
have failed. The issue has been a vote-winner for far-right and populist parties. (AP)
Vow to meet spending target:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she was taking Berlin’s commitment towards its NATO allies seriously to further increase defence spending towards the agreed target.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Germany’s failure to raise defence spending to 2% of economic output as mandated by the NATO military alliance.
The US ambassador to Germany said last Friday that Berlin’s reluctance to spend more money on defence and its continued reliance on U.S. troops for protection were “offensive”.
Speaking at a panel discussion organised by Ostsee Zeitung local newspaper in the Baltic Sea town of Stralsund, Merkel said she took seriously the 2% defence spending target, adding: “We said we want to achieve 1.5% by 2024. And that is our common will.” (RTRS)