China to open giant telescope to international scientists

Issued on: 15/12/2020 - 

The five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in southwestern China's Guizhou province is the only significant instrument of its kind Handout National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC)/AFP

Pingtang (China) (AFP)

Nestled among the mountains in southwest China, the world's largest radio telescope signals Beijing's ambitions as a global centre for scientific research.

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) -- the only significant instrument of its kind after the collapse of another telescope in Puerto Rico this month -- is about to open its doors for foreign astronomers to use, hoping to attract the world's top scientific talent.

The world's second-largest radio telescope, at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, was destroyed when its suspended 900-tonne receiver platform came loose and plunged 140 metres (450 feet) onto the radio dish below.

Wang Qiming, chief inspector of FAST's operations and development centre, told AFP during a rare visit by the foreign press last week that he had visited Arecibo.

"We drew a lot of inspiration from its structure, which we gradually improved to build our telescope."

The Chinese installation in Pingtang, Guizhou province, is up to three times more sensitive than the US-owned one, and is surrounded by a five-kilometre (three-mile) "radio silence" zone where mobile phones and computers are not allowed.

Work on the FAST began in 2011 and it started full operations in January this year, working mainly to capture the radio signals emitted by celestial bodies, in particular pulsars -- rapidly rotating dead stars.

The 500-metre giant satellite dish is easily the world's largest -- covering the area of 30 football pitches -- and cost 1.1 billion yuan ($175 million) to build, as well as displacing thousands of villagers to make room for it.

China has been rapidly boosting its scientific credentials to become less reliant on foreign technology.

The world's most populous country has so far only won one scientific Nobel Prize -- awarded in 2015 to chemist Tu Youyou.

But in the past two decades, China has built the largest high-speed train network in the world, finalised its Beidou geolocation system -- a competitor of the American GPS -- and is now in the process of bringing lunar samples back to Earth.

China is pouring billions into its military-run space programme and has published a plan to become by 2035 a world leader in artificial intelligence, space, clean energy and robotics.

The data being collected by FAST should allow for a better understanding of the origins of the universe -- and aid in the search for alien life.

- Talent hunt -

Closer to home, China has said it will accept requests in 2021 from foreign scientists wishing to carry out measurements.

"Our scientific committee aims to make FAST increasingly open to the international community," said Wang.

Sun Jinghai, an engineering manager at the site, predicted there would be a lot of take-up.

John Dickey, professor of physics at the University of Tasmania in Australia, said the results so far had been impressive.

"China is certainly a global centre for scientific research, at the same level as North America or Western Europe," he said.

"The community of researchers is as advanced, as creative, and as well organised as in any advanced nation in the world."

Improvements in scientific innovation have been rapid, said Denis Simon, an expert on Chinese science policy, adding that "China was viewed as an innovation laggard" only a few years ago.

"More and more discretion and intellectual freedom have been given to the scientific and engineering community to explore new ideas and take bigger risks in the research environment," he said.

"The risk-averse culture that was once predominant has given way to a more entrepreneurial culture."

This has included education reforms for new generations of scientists and engineers, he said.

A sign of the change in China's mentality is that since 2018, foreign scientists have been able to lead state-funded projects.

"In many ways, the competition between China and the US is about a race for talent -- and this race promises to build momentum as the competition between the two countries heats up," he added.

© 2020 AFP

Rohingya trafficking network sells dreams, delivers violence and extortion

Issued on: 15/12/2020 - 

A months-long AFP investigation uncovered mobile phone images taken by a smuggler aboard a boat - Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP)

Auto rickshaws slip easily past barbed-wire checkpoints at the world's biggest refugee camp, their drivers among the smallest players in a complex human trafficking network involving high-seas extortion gangs, corrupt police and drug lords.

Aboard the spluttering rickshaws are small groups of young men, women and children hoping to escape the misery of life with other members of their stateless Rohingya group who are crowded into shanties in Bangladesh.

Nineteen-year-old Enamul Hasan was aboard one of the rickshaws early this year, taken to the coast and then by small boat into a bigger fishing vessel anchored in the Bay of Bengal where he joined hundreds of other Rohingya hoping to reach Malaysia.

"I was told I'd get the opportunity to finish my studies and earn money to get my family out of poverty," Hasan told AFP, recounting the promises of the low-level smuggler in the camp who was his main contact for organising the trip.

Instead, after enduring beatings by crew members and watching others die during more than six weeks at sea, Hasan's boat returned to Bangladesh and he is back in his squalid home.

"I will never forget what I've been through. The traffickers, the brutality of the sailors... I'd never do it again," Hasan said.

AFP spoke to Hasan as part of an in-depth investigation into the people smuggling network that included dozens of interviews with refugees in Bangladesh and Indonesia, where hundreds arrived this year after months at sea.

AFP also interviewed fishermen involved in the trade, police, government officials, community leaders and aid workers.

The investigation revealed a sophisticated and always-evolving operation worth many millions of dollars in which members of the Rohingya community play a key role in trafficking their own people.

Thai-registered fishing boats capable of holding 1,000 people, satellite phones, a mini-armada of smaller supply vessels and corrupt officials across Southeast Asia, as well as in the Bangladeshi camp, are also integral to the network.

"It's a big business that uses humanity as its cover," said Iskandar Dewantara, co-founder of the Geutanyoe Foundation, an Indonesia-based refugee advocacy group.

It can also be brutal.

Hasan provided to AFP footage from a mobile phone he said had belonged to one of the Burmese crew members showing them beating the passengers.

In the video, a trafficker uses what appears to be a whip to repeatedly strike shirtless men huddled together, with rake-thin children and women crowded around them.

The sailor who owned the phone left it when the crew abandoned the boat following a mutiny at sea, according to Hasan.

- Brides -

Muslim Rohingya have for decades endured persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are not recognised as citizens, and smuggling routes out by land and sea have long existed.

Relatively affluent and Muslim Malaysia has been the main destination.

More than 100,000 Rohingya now live on the margins of society in Malaysia, registered as refugees but not allowed to work, forcing the men into illegal construction and other low-paid jobs.

A Myanmar military crackdown in 2017, which UN investigators said amounted to genocide, turbo-charged the exodus, forcing 750,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh’s southeast coastal district of Cox's Bazar.

That is now a sprawling refugee camp of one million people from where the only way out is the dangerous boat journeys.

Spurring the demand are the Rohingya men in Malaysia who pay smugglers to bring over families, or new brides from arranged marriages, according to advocacy groups and women involved.

Malaysian authorities frequently turn back boats, and fears over Covid-19 have amplified their intolerance for more refugees.

However, nearly 500 Rohingya made it to Malaysia in three vessels this year, according to an AFP tally from the landings.

Since June, about 400 Rohingya have also landed in northern Indonesia -- all trying to reach neighbouring Malaysia -- in the biggest wave of arrivals there in five years.

Hundreds more are believed to have died at sea from beatings, starvation or dehydration, while other boats have returned to Bangladesh.

Many of the boat people who arrived in Indonesia were women.

Among them was 18-year-old Janu, who told AFP at a makeshift refugee camp in Lhokseumawe, a coastal town in Indonesia's Aceh province, that her family had arranged for her to marry a Rohingya man working as a labourer in Malaysia.

"I had been waiting in the camp for two years, it was worth the risk," Janu said, hoping that like some others had already done she may now be able to find a way to Malaysia.

- Escape -

Escaping the Bangladesh camp starts with a down payment that can reach the equivalent of $2,000, often paid by a refugee's husband or other relatives in Malaysia using mobile banking applications.

Refugees then get a phone call typically from someone they do not know.

"The call came after a few days and a man instructed us to go to the rickshaw stand in the main food market area of the camp," said 20-year-old Julekha Begum, who married a Rohingya man in Malaysia via a video chat app.

Rickshaw drivers hired by traffickers take refugees to several barbed-wire security checkpoints, where security forces typically wave them through for a bribe.

Then it is a few hours' drive to half a dozen take-off zones identified by AFP that line the coast and where thousands of fishing boats make their way out to sea for nightly expeditions.

The Rohingya wait until small boats that hold about a dozen people fill up before they're taken to much bigger ships far out at sea -- sometimes two-storey fishing vessels capable of holding 1,000 people.

The big boats, usually piloted by crews from Myanmar, are equipped with GPS equipment, mobile communications as well as food and drinking water.

"Many fishing boats nowadays carry people to the deep sea where bigger vessels wait for the victims," said Hemayetul Islam, a refugee camp police battalion commander.

"When we go and check these boats, we see fishing nets and other fishing gear. It is very difficult for us to differentiate between actual fishermen and smugglers."

Once on their way to Malaysia, smaller boats regularly bring food and water to the big vessels.

Rohingya interviewed by AFP said they were told they would arrive in Malaysia -- roughly 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles away) in a week.

In reality, the trip takes months -- if they make it at all.

Refugees who made it to Indonesia told stories of beatings and torture, near-starvation rations and threats to hold passengers hostage until their relatives paid more money.

They told varying accounts of the main boats sailing near Malaysia and some passengers being unloaded onto smaller ones for their final destination after relatives paid more money in what were essentially ransom demands.

Asmot Ullah, a 21-year-old man who landed in September, said smugglers "usually beat people on the boat if their relatives don't make payments or can't pay more".

Another passenger, Mohammad Nizam, said he was kept off a smaller, Malaysia-bound boat because of a lack of money.

"They were asking for more money than we had agreed earlier, but my parents couldn't afford it," said 25-year-old Nizam.

"If you pay more you will be brought (directly) to Malaysia."

One boatload of up to 1,000 passengers can be worth up to $3 million for the smugglers, according to authorities.

- Fake 'rescue' -

Indonesian fishermen initially claimed they had rescued the first boatload of about 100 Rohingya in June.

However, the purported "rescue" was in fact a coordinated effort by the smugglers to avoid the tighter border controls in Malaysia, authorities and traffickers involved in the operation said.

"They created this public perception that the fishermen had found them after their boat capsized," said Sony Sanjaya, director of the general crime division for Aceh's police.

"But their arrival here wasn't an accident."

Once in Indonesia, the smugglers hope to get the Rohingya into Malaysia via a narrow sea crossing that separates the two countries, according to local authorities.

However, most remain stuck in the Lhokseumawe camp, two former school buildings that local authorities have set aside for the new arrivals.

Three local fishermen were among a handful of alleged traffickers arrested in October in connection with the June landing.

Interviewed by AFP at a lockup in Aceh, the men said they were hired by a Rohingya man living in Indonesia -- who was also arrested -- to rent a boat and later to pick up a vessel filled with refugees.

"I desperately needed money then so I took the job," said father-of-six Faisal.

The fishermen were given location coordinates and instructed to flash packages of popular clove-infused cigarettes so the boat traffickers would recognise them, authorities said.

- Compassion, greed -

Inside the camps in Bangladesh, a complex mix of compassion, desperation and greed appears to drive the people trafficking network, which has links to the illicit drug trade.

The region is a well-known manufacturing hub of yaba, a cheap methamphetamine popular across Southeast Asia.

AFP spoke with a 25-year-old man who said he was born in one of the oldest refugee settlements in Bangladesh and started working for a Rohingya organised crime leader at the age of 14.

He asked only to be identified by his first name, Mohammed.

"I worked for him for two years and managed to get at least 200 Rohingya willing to go to Malaysia and away from the madness of these camps," Mohammed said, adding he was paid the equivalent of $550 a month for finding people.

Mohammed said Bangladeshi security forces eventually shot his boss dead, and after a few years out of the trade he is scouting for another way to get back in.

"If I can't find an opening here, I'll start doing it myself using my own contacts (overseas)," he said, talking about the money he hoped to make.

But other Rohingya involved in the trafficking in Cox's Bazar describe their work as a moral duty.

"If someone wants to get out of this hellish place, as a sensible brother, I think it's my duty to show them the way ou

Exclusive video: Smugglers beat Rohingya on trafficking boat

Issued on: 15/12/2020 -

A video from onboard a boat trafficking Rohingya refugees shows a smuggler beating people with what appears to be a whip - AFP

VIDEO https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201215-exclusive-video-smugglers-beat-rohingya-on-trafficking-boat

Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP)

Smugglers mercilessly beat rake-thin refugees crowded onto a fishing boat, in a video obtained by AFP that shows rarely seen images from the frontlines of the Rohingya trafficking network.

Filmed on a mobile phone by a smuggler who later fled the vessel, the video shows dozens of asylum seekers, including children, sitting in the hull and on the deck as smugglers stand among them.

An argument starts and one of the traffickers, holding a thick rope in one hand, pushes a Rohingya man back and kicks him.

He then uses what appears to be a whip with his other hand to repeatedly lash a group of shirtless men who scramble to avoid the beating.

"They started beating us because we complained about the food," Mohammad Osman, a 16-year-old passenger, said in an interview at a Bangladesh refugee camp conducted as part of a months-long AFP investigation into the people-smuggling network.

"They randomly beat us just because we were asking for more rice and water."

Osman's neighbour, Enamul Hasan, 19, who was also on the ship, said he grabbed the phone after one of the traffickers left it behind when fleeing onto another vessel during what amounted to a mutiny.

The footage was shot several days before the group's Malaysia-bound boat returned to Bangladesh in mid-April, he said. It had departed in February.

Earlier beatings, which were not captured on video, saw some Rohingya die at the hands of the smugglers, Hasan told AFP at the refugee camp.

"They beat us mercilessly -- hitting our heads, tearing at our ears, breaking hands."

Hasan and Osman said 46 people on their vessel died from beatings, starvation and illness, giving breakdowns of men, women and children who perished.

AFP could not independently verify all of the specifics of their accounts, but a third surviving passenger separately retold similar events.

AFP also confirmed that Hasan and Osman were in the video footage. They could be seen huddling among the group of men who were being hit.

- Mutiny -

Hasan described how the crew, ethnic Burmese from Myanmar, eventually fled after some of the passengers began to resist.

The refugees had initially kept pleading to be taken to land as they tried to survive on starvation rations of rice and water, he added.

"But the smugglers told us to shut up and that there was no land for us. They said they'd kill us if we kept talking," Hasan said.

"We realised if this continues, we all would die. We needed to do something. We felt like we were in hell.

"So we attacked the crew since we had nothing to lose. It was a life-or-death situation... we threatened to kill the smugglers if they didn't drop us on land."

The crew responded to the mutiny by threatening to set the boat on fire, according to Hasan.

"They kept saying they'd burn us alive so we became silent again," Hasan said.

"Those two traffickers told us not to rebel, that they would drop us where they could," Hasan said.

"A couple of days later they left us back near Bangladesh and fled."

Over 570,000 Uighurs involved in Xinjiang cotton coerced labour: report

Issued on: 15/12/2020 - 

Xinjiang is a global hub for the crop, producing over 20 percent of the world's cotton 

STR AFP/File
3 min
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Beijing (AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority labourers in China's northwestern Xinjiang region are being forced into picking cotton by hand through a coercive state labour scheme, a report has said.

Rights activists have said the northwestern Xinjiang region is home to a vast network of extrajudicial internment camps that have imprisoned at least one million people, which China has defended as vocational training centres to counter extremism.

A report by Washington-based think tank the Center for Global Policy published Monday -- which referenced online government documents -- said that in 2018 three majority-Uighur regions within Xinjiang sent at least 570,000 people to pick cotton as part of a state-run coercive labour transfer scheme.

Researchers estimate that the total number involved in coerced Xinjiang cotton-picking -- which relies heavily on manual labour -- exceeds that figure by "several hundred thousand".

Xinjiang is a global hub for the crop, producing over 20 percent of the world's cotton, with the report warning of the "potentially drastic consequences" for global supply chains.

Around a fifth of the yarn used in American comes from Xinjiang.

Beijing said that all detainees have "graduated" from the centres, but reports have suggested that many former inmates have been transferred to low-skilled manufacturing factory jobs, often linked to the camps.

But the think tank report said labour transfer scheme participants are heavily surveilled by police, with point-to-point transfers, "military-style management" and ideological training, citing government documents.

"It is clear that labour transfers for cotton-picking involve a very high risk of forced labour," Adrian Zenz, who uncovered the documents, wrote in the report.

"Some minorities may exhibit a degree of consent in relation to this process, and they may benefit financially. However... it is impossible to define where coercion ends and where local consent may begin."

The report also says there is a strong ideological incentive to enforce the scheme, as the boost in rural incomes allows officials to hit state-mandated poverty alleviation targets.

China has strongly denied allegations of forced labour involving Uighurs in Xinjiang, and accused the US of wanting to "suppress Xinjiang companies".

Beijing also says training programmes, work schemes and better education have helped stamp out extremism in the region.

Earlier this month, the US banned imports of cotton produced by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a major paramilitary entity, which covers about a third of the crop produced in the entire region.

Another proposed bill banning all imports from Xinjiang has yet to pass the US Senate.

Several international brands including Adidas, Gap and Nike have been accused of using Uighur forced labour in their textile supply chains, according to a March report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

© 2020 AFP

Asteroid samples leave Japan scientists 'speechless'

Issued on: 15/12/2020 - 

Scientists in Japan said they were speechless at how much asteroid dust was delivered by the Hayabusa-2 probe   Handout JAXA/AFP

Tokyo (AFP)

Scientists in Japan said Tuesday they were left "speechless" when they saw how much asteroid dust was inside a capsule delivered by the Hayabusa-2 space probe in an unprecedented mission.

The Japanese probe collected surface dust and pristine material last year from the asteroid Ryugu, around 300 million kilometres (200 million miles) away, during two daring phases of its six-year mission.

This month it dropped off a capsule containing the samples, which created a fireball as it entered the Earth's atmosphere, and landed in the Australian desert before being transported to Japan.

Scientists at the Japanese space agency JAXA on Tuesday removed the screws to the capsule's inner container, having already found a small amount of asteroid dust in the outer shell.

"When we actually opened it, I was speechless. It was more than we expected and there was so much that I was truly impressed," said JAXA scientist Hirotaka Sawada.

"It wasn't fine particles like powder, but there were plenty of samples that measured several millimetres across."

Scientists hope the material will shed light on the formation of the universe and perhaps offer clues about how life began on Earth.

The scientists have not yet revealed if the material inside is equal to, or perhaps even more, than the 0.1 grams they had said they hoped to discover.

Seiichiro Watanabe, a Hayabusa project scientist and professor at Nagoya University, said he was nonetheless thrilled.

"There are a lot (of samples) and it seems they contain plenty of organic matter," he said.

"So I hope we can find out many things about how organic substances have developed on the parent body of Ryugu."

Half of Hayabusa-2's samples will be shared between JAXA, US space agency NASA and other international organisations.

The rest will be kept for future study as advances are made in analytic technology.

But work is not over for the probe, which will now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.

Press freedom: Journalists end up in jail for reporting on coronavirus crisis

Hundreds of journalists are in prison worldwide for not giving in to government censorship, according to the German chapter of Reporters Without Borders. The findings were published in its annual report on press freedom.




Five countries were responsible for more than half of the jailed journalists recorded by RSF in 2020

At least 387 people working in the media industry around the world had been imprisoned by December 1 of this year, the German office of the press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced in its annual report on Monday.

Five countries were responsible for over half of all convictions: China led the pack with 117 jailed journalists, followed by Saudi Arabia (34), Egypt (30), Vietnam (28) and Syria (27).

While the majority of imprisoned press workers were still men, the number of women arrested in 2020 increased by a third to 42.

Dangers of reporting on the COVID pandemic

Since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic early in the year, over 130 members of the press, be they journalists or otherwise, have been arrested for reporting on the crisis. Some 14 of those were still in jail at the time of the report's publication, said the report.


"The high number of imprisoned journalists worldwide throws a harsh spotlight on the current threats to press freedom," said Katja Gloger, the head of the RSF German office.

Gloger condemned the response of far too many governments to protests, grievances or the COVID-19 crisis with repression against the "bringers of bad news."

"Behind every single one of these cases is the fate of a person who faces criminal trials, long imprisonment and often mistreatment because he did not submit to censorship and repression," she added.

Her colleague, Sylvie Ahrens-Urbanek, highlighted one particular example of reprisals for reporting on the coronavirus pandemic — the case of investigative journalist Hopewell Chin'ono from Zimbabwe, who was arrested for reporting on the government's sale of overpriced COVID-19 medication. He was "brutally arrested," said Ahrens-Urbanek, and spent a month and a half in prison. Release on bail was repeatedly refused.
Worsening situation in wake of restrictions

Reporters Without Borders gave particular attention to Belarus, where at least 370 journalists have been arrested in the wake of the contested presidential election on August 9. Although most of those were released after a short period, the crackdown on journalists represents a reduction in press freedom.

Watch video Press freedom falls victim to pandemic

The report also highlighted the detention of the Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently in Belmarsh high-security prison in the UK. RSF claimed that the conditions had become much worse following a coronavirus outbreak in the prison and that Assange had been placed in de facto isolation.

The report expressed concern for the health of those imprisoned journalists who have not received proper medical attention during the pandemic and who have been subjected to the psychological effects of increased isolation.

Five journalists were facing death sentences as of December 1, one of whom — Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam — was executed on December 12. The other four were in the custody of the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Watch video Murder highlights plight of female reporters in Afghanistan

RSF counted 54 media workers who had been kidnapped in Syria, Iraq and Yemen; some of them have not been heard from in years. Another four journalists disappeared under unexplained circumstances in 2020 — one in Iraq, one in Congo, one in Mozambique and one in Peru.

The NGO began issuing its yearly report in 1995. It includes cases of journalists and other professionals working in the field of journalism. The compilers only include data if it can be carefully confirmed, which sometimes leads to certain countries, such as Turkey, showing lower numbers than reported elsewhere.

EU's rights agency warns on AI threat to rights

Fundamental human rights could be at risk if AI technologies are used without due caution, the EU's rights agency says. It said AI can lead to discriminatory biases and perversions of justice if safeguards are lacking.


Artificial intelligence technologies are being employed more and more across the world

More attention should be paid to the possible negative effects on people's fundamental rights of technologies based on artificial intelligence, the EU's rights agency said in a report issued on Monday.

"AI is not infallible; it is made by people — and humans can make mistakes," said Michael O'Flaherty, director of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), in comments cited on the agency's website.

"The EU needs to clarify how existing rules apply to AI. And organizations need to assess how their technologies can interfere with people's rights both in the development and use of AI," O'Flaherty said.
Neglected rights aspect

The FRA report, entitled "Getting the future right — Artificial intelligence and fundamental rights in the EU," identifies areas where it feels the bloc must create safeguards and mechanisms for holding businesses and public administrations accountable in their use of AI.

It points out the many sectors in which AI is now already widely used, including in decisions on who will receive social benefits, predicting criminality and risk of illness and creating targeted advertising.

The report says that much of the focus in developing AI has been on its "potential to support economic growth" while the aspect of its impact on fundamental rights has been rather neglected.

Facial recognition technology is one use of AI that has aroused considerable controversy

Call for accountability

It is possible that "people are blindly adopting new technologies without assessing their impact before actually using them," David Reichel, one of the experts behind the report, told the AFP news agency.

Reichel told AFP that even when data sets did not include information linked to gender or ethnic origin, there was still "a lot of information than can be linked to protected attributes."

One example used in the report is employing facial recognition technology for law enforcement. It says even small error rates could lead to many innocent people being falsely picked out if the technology were used in places where large numbers are scanned, such as airports or train stations. "A potential bias in error rates could then lead to disproportionately targeting certain groups in society," the report says.

The report calls for more funding into the "potentially discriminatory effects of AI" and for any future legislation on AI to "create effective safeguards."

Above all, it says, the use of AI needs to be more transparent, more accountable and include the possibility of human review.

VIDEO The two faces of automatic facial recognition technology https://p.dw.com/p/3mi0X

Australia says China coal ban would be clear 

WTO breach

Issued on: 15/12/2020 - 
Australia's economy has seen solid growth in recent decades on the back of supplying the raw materials for China's emergence as a modern economy WILLIAM WEST AFP/File
3 min
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Sydney (AFP)

Australia on Tuesday decried China's reported ban on its coal exports as an obvious breach of World Trade Organisation rules, as tensions between the two countries flared again.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Chinese government had yet to confirm state media reports that Australia's multi-billion-dollar coal exports are now subject to an informal ban.

Nationalist state-run tabloid the Global Times reported on Sunday that Chinese power plants are being steered toward buying their coal domestically, as well as from countries other than Australia.

"If that were the case, then that would obviously be in breach of WTO rules," Morrison said. "It would be obviously in breach of our own free trade agreement and so we would hope that is certainly not the case."

"We are seeking clarification on this," Morrison said, although ministerial-level contacts between the two countries are said to be non-existent.

Ties between the two countries are at the lowest ebb since the Chinese government's 1989 killing of pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square, with Beijing rolling out a string of economic sanctions against Australian products.

Each dispute has been billed as a technical issue, but many in Canberra believe the sanctions are retribution for Australia pushing back against Chinese influence at home and in the Asia-Pacific.

At least 13 Australian sectors have been subjected to tariffs or some form of disruption, including barley, beef, copper, cotton, lobsters, sugar, timber, tourism, universities, wine, wheat and wool.

Suggestions of a coal embargo had been the subject of rumours for some time, with many Australia shipments reportedly already blocked at Chinese ports.

But even an informal ban would be a dramatic escalation, targeting one of Australia's most valuable exports -- worth up to US$3 billion a year -- and a sector that Morrison's conservative government has been keen to champion, despite objections from environmentalists.

Australia has long hinted that it may seek WTO intervention in the disputes, but a resolution could take years, open Australia up to retaliatory claims and worsen relations with Beijing further.

There has so far been little indication that Australia's political allies in the United States or Europe have been willing to step in and offer support.

The dispute with China has called into question Australia's decades-old model for stellar economic growth -- namely supplying the raw materials for China's breakneck emergence as a modern economy.

Morrison said both nations had benefited from close trade relations over previous decades and called for "mature discussions" about the disputes.

"Australia has always participated in China's economic development," he said. "We always have been a proponent of China's economic growth. We are not one of those countries that have sought to contain their growth."

© 2020 AFP

Japan's wasabi producers farm 'green gold'

Issued on: 15/12/2020 

Fresh wasabi is known as 'green gold' in Japan; it is difficult to farm, and therefore an expensive delicacy Charly TRIBALLEAU AFP

Izu (Japan) (AFP)

If you've eaten sushi, you might assume you've tried wasabi. But chances are it was an artificial version that Japanese growers say is a world away from their 'green gold'.

Unlike the spicy neon concoction familiar to many fans of Japanese cuisine -- which is in fact made from horseradish -- real wasabi is pale-green and offers a complex, mildly piquant flavour.

But even in Japan, it's not common fare. That's because the knobbly root is so difficult to grow, and consequently expensive to buy, with most of it snapped up by wholesalers

"The most important requirement is crystal-clear water, in abundance," Yoshihiro Shioya, 62, told AFP as he pulled a wasabi root from the sodden soil at his lush, green mountainside farm on Shizuoka province's Izu peninsula.

"It's absolutely necessary that the water temperature stays between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius, year-round," added Shioya, whose family has cultivated wasabi in the region for seven generations.

Patience is key -- each wasabi crop can take a whole year or even 18 months to mature in the large man-made terraces, which serve a particular design purpose.

"The water flows down from the top of the mountain, which has terraces built into it covered with layers of pebbles and sand that filter and purify it," explained Yasuaki Kohari, of Izu's agricultural cooperative.

Once ready, the long roots, topped with a plume of round green leaves, are harvested by hand. The leaves are stripped off and the root, known as a rhizome, is carried away in baskets.

About half of the 550 tonnes of fresh wasabi grown in Japan last year came from Shizuoka, southwest of the capital Tokyo.

Wasabi grows naturally there and has been used in local cuisine for centuries.

Legend has it that it was especially loved and popularised by 17th century shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, a military ruler who was one of the unifiers of Japan.

These days it is mostly purchased by high-end restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka.

- 'Spicy, but with sweet notes' -

Wasabi is prepared by grating the root, usually on a small square device with fine metal teeth or topped with coarse sharkskin -- a process done almost immediately before consumption, as its piquancy fades after about 20 minutes.

Its spiciness is produced by a chemical called allyl isothiocyanate, which also gives mustard, radish and horseradish their pungency, and which scientists say has antibacterial properties.

It is usually served as a complement to raw fish, or alongside buckwheat soba noodles.

Toshiya Matsushita, a sushi chef at a restaurant in central Tokyo with a month-long waiting list, would never dream of using imitation wasabi.

"It feels powdery in your mouth and doesn't have much flavour," he said.

"Fresh wasabi not only masks the smell of the raw fish, but also heightens its flavour. It is spicy, but with sweet notes."

But it doesn't come cheap. He spends more than $700 a month on wasabi and uses one whole root a day, which he grates freshly for each order at his restaurant, Sushi Matsushita.

"The taste, the texture and the spiciness are different according to the way it is grated," he said.

- Not just a condiment -

Despite its enthusiasts, wasabi remains largely the preserve of restaurants like Matsushita's -- but these have suffered along with the rest of the hospitality industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

So wasabi growers have been prompted to think of ways to expand their market.

Wholesalers have been selling their stock to supermarket chains, hoping to acquaint new customers with the taste of the unique product. But the high price continues to be a barrier, the farmer Shioya says.

Others, like Yamamoto Foods, around an hour's drive from Shioya's farm, offer wasabi-based products that go beyond the root's status as a condiment.

"You can also eat the stalks, the flowers, the leaves. We use all the parts, so people can really get to know this delicious product," said store manager Mayumi Yasumori.

The firm offers wasabi-infused olive oil, salt and mayonnaise, as well as shavings of wasabi to sprinkle on rice -- and even wasabi-flavoured ice cream.

"Wasabi shouldn't just play a cameo in the kitchen," said Yasumori. "It can also take the leading role."

© 2020 AFP

California wants pandemic cases info from Amazon

Issued on: 15/12/2020 -

The state of California has accused Amazon of failing to adequately comply with subpoenas demanding details about coronavirus cases and protocols at its facilities

 David Becker AFP/File

San Francisco (AFP)

California on Monday accused Amazon of failing to adequately comply with subpoenas demanding details about coronavirus cases and protocols at its facilities here.

State attorney general Xavier Becerra filed a petition calling on a California judge to order the e-commerce colossus to provide the information being sought, according to his office.

"It's critical to know if these workers are receiving the protections on the job that they are entitled to under the law," Becerra said, referring to Amazon employees in California.

"Amazon has delayed responding adequately to our investigative requests long enough."

The petition to the court argues that the e-commerce giant has not provided information being sought as part of an investigation into Amazon's coronavirus protocols and the status of COVID-19 cases at its facilities.

Subpoenas were issued by the California department of justice four months ago, according to Becerra.

"We're puzzled by the Attorney General's sudden rush to court because we've been working cooperatively for months and their claims of noncompliance with their demands don't line up with the facts," Amazon said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"The bottom line is that we're a leader in providing COVID-19 safety measures for our employees – we've invested billions of dollars in equipment and technology, including building on-site testing for employees and providing personal protective equipment."

Information sought by state attorneys included Amazon sick leave policies and cleaning procedures, as well as raw data on the number of infections and deaths at their facilities in the state.

Seattle-based Amazon has seen sales, and pressure on its logistics network to deliver, soar during the pandemic as people shop online to reduce health risk.