5, May 2018
Beijing blasts Macron accusations of Chinese ‘hegemony’ 0
China has denounced as “groundless accusations” French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning against what he called the dominance of the East Asian country in the Indo-Pacific region.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit back at the French president’s comment and said Macron’s concerns were baseless as China has been seeking a peaceful rise to a global power status.
The French president said during his visit to Sydney on Thursday that France, India and Australia shared a responsibility to protect the region from “hegemony,” making an implicit reference to China’s growing might.
“What’s important is to preserve rules-based development in the region … and to preserve necessary balances in the region,” Macron said. “It’s important with this new context not to have any hegemony.”
“In the eyes of the world, which country could be said actually to be exercising hegemony in the world nowadays? Who has also long exercised military or economic hegemony of every kind in the region?” Hua asked.
“Before making such comments or groundless accusations, you should clarify these facts,” the spokeswoman told reporters during a regular press briefing, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States.
The Chinese state-run Global Times also blasted Macron and accused him of staging an “opportunistic show in (the) Indo-Pacific.”
“As France is in decline, opportunism is rising within its diplomacy,” the newspaper said.
France has a number of island territories in the Pacific Ocean.
The country maintains a strong security presence throughout the resource-rich region, with 4,500 permanent military personnel stationed in its Indian Ocean bases and 2,800 in the Pacific.
Australia, a Frances’s close ally, has also become increasingly alarmed at Beijing’s power and influence in the Pacific, which it claims could potentially upset the strategic balance in the region.
India and the US have recently engaged in talks to boost operational cooperation, including bilateral maritime security and open market trade, in the Indo-Pacific region.
India has begun holding trilateral naval exercises with the US and Japan that military experts say could eventually include Australia as well.
The US has already announced plans seeking to confront China’s influential moves in the strategic region by enhancing its military presence there.
The United States has criticized China’s construction of islands and military facilities in the South China Sea, saying they could be used to restrict free nautical movement.
China says there is no issue with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and opposes efforts to use it as an “excuse” to infringe on its sovereignty and security interests.
Source: Presstv
5, May 2018
Earthquake in South Africa mine leaves 7 dead 0
An earthquake that hit a South African gold mine claimed a total of seven lives, its owner said Saturday, after rescue operations were completed at the site outside Johannesburg.
The epicenter of the 2.2-magnitude quake was close to where the miners were working on Thursday, and 13 employees were trapped about three kilometers (two miles) below the surface.
“The last three employees who were recovered (had) passed away from their injuries, bringing the total number of fatalities as a result of the seismic event to seven,” mining company Sibanye-Stillwater said in a statement.
It added that rescue teams had worked for two and a half days in “extremely challenging conditions” to save colleagues while there were further underground tremors.
Operations at the Masakhane mine in Driefontein have been suspended and an investigation launched.
Six mineworkers remain in hospital.
In February, nearly 1,000 miners were trapped underground for 30 hours following a power cut caused by a storm in another mine owned by Sibanye-Stillwater.
A few days later, two miners were killed after ground collapsed at a mine also belonging to the group.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it was “angry and concerned at the rate at which mining incidents are happening at Sibanye-Stillwater.”
Mine accidents are common in South Africa. In 2016, 73 people died in mines around the country, according to the Chamber of Mines.
(Source: AFP)