42 2GM Saturday August 1 2020 | the times
Wo r l d
5,000 US troops for
permanent Polish base
Poland The United States will
deploy an additional 1,000 troops
to the country as part of a
permanent military presence, the
Polish defence ministry said.
Poland is putting more trust in its
bilateral defence arrangement
with the US, its Nato ally, as
concerns have grown over
Russia’s increasingly assertive
stance since it annexed Crimea
from Ukraine in 2014. Poland
hosts about 4,000 US troops on
rotation, and the increase and
permanent presence will cost the
country more. It is unclear where
the extra troops will be drawn
from, but the US plans to
withdraw about 12,000 troops
from Germany. (Reuters)Google and Facebook
facing charge for news
Australia Google and Facebook
could be forced to pay news
outlets for using their content.
The Australian government
released a draft code of conduct,
which will be debated by
parliament. Josh Frydenberg, the
treasurer, said that other websites
could be targeted in future.
Google and Facebook argue that
the proposal could impede the
digital economy. (AP)Marathon attack death
sentence is overturned
United States The Boston
Marathon bomber Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev’s death sentence has
been overturned by the First US
Circuit Court of Appeals.
Tsarnaev, 27, was sentenced in
2015 for helping his older brother
carry out the attack in 2013 in
which three people died and
more than 260 were injured. A
hearing to determine a new
sentence was ordered. (Reuters)Forest fire forces 100
to flee coastal resort
France A forest fire in the middle
of a French coastal resort has
been contained after spreading
across 400 acres, destroying
11 homes and forcing about 100
people to flee overnight, officials
said. The blaze erupted late on
Thursday in 42C temperatures in
the Chiberta forest park at Anglet
near Biarritz in southwest France,
where beaches draw surfers from
around the world. (AFP)Hundreds of elephants
killed by natural toxins
Botswana Hundreds of elephants
that died mysteriously in the
Okavango Delta succumbed to
natural toxins, the Botswana
wildlife department believes. The
country has the world’s largest
elephant population, estimated to
be about 130,000. The authorities
ruled out poaching, because the
tusks were intact, and anthrax
but said bacteria in stagnant
water may be the cause. (AFP)Divers take nets off
wartime submarine
Greece Half a tonne of fishing
nets covering the wreck of a
British submarine have been
removed to protect dolphins,
turtles and seals. HMS Perseus,
which lies 170ft down off the
islands of Cephalonia and
Zakynthos, sank in 1941. The
Healthy Seas group, whose divers
did the work, said abandoned
nets were killing millions of
animals every year. (Reuters)China will rival the US and Russia in
nuclear capability by the end of the
decade, leading to a three-way face-off
for the first time, an American com-
mander said yesterday.
Throughout the Cold War the US
and Soviet Union were the only peer
competitors, each with long-range
nuclear weapons delivered by intercon-
tinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), sub-
marine-launched missiles and strategic
bombers. However, China has made
such a rapid advance in nuclear weap-
onry that it will also have all three com-
ponents — the nuclear triad — when its
dedicated strategic bomber becomes
operational. The H-20 is the first
stealth bomber to be designed in China.
“China is on a trajectory to be a
strategic peer to us by the end of the
decade, so for the first time ever the US
is going to face two peer-capable
nuclear competitors,” Admiral Charles
Richard, commander of US Strategic
The Hong Kong authorities postponed
local elections for a year yesterday,
infuriating pro-democracy supporters
and capping off a month of political dis-
qualifications, arrests for social media
posts and activists fleeing overseas.
Claiming a surge in coronavirus
cases in the territory made it dangerous
to hold elections, Carrie Lam, chief ex-
ecutive of the territory, invoked emer-
gency powers to reschedule the polls.
“Today I announce the most difficult
decision in the last seven months... to
postpone the legislative council elect-
ion,” Ms Lam said.
The move was strongly opposed by
pro-democracy campaigners, who
were expecting to win a historic major-
ity in the city parliament, where half of
the 70 seats are directly elected and the
other half largely filled with pro-Beijing
appointments, after a year-long anti-
government movement.
Pro-democracy supporters had said
over the past week that Hong Kong was
preparing to delay the vote to crack
down on dissent after China imposed a
national security law on the territory.
Moments after Ms Lam’s announce-
ment, Beijing threw its full support be-
hind her, saying the decision was an act
of responsibility for public health. “It’s
very necessary. It’s reasonable and
legitimate,” a statement from the Hong
Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Bei-
jing read. “The central government
fully understands it and supports it.”
The standing committee of the
national parliament, which adopted the
national security law a month ago,
will rule on the vacancies in the Hong
Joshua Wong said
it was “the largest
election fraud” in
Hong Kong’s
historyBETH CRADICK/SOLENT NEWSHong Kong anger
as elections are
delayed for a year
Kong parliament due to the delay, the
office said.
In the same statement, it announced
that Beijing would send medical staff to
help the Hong Kong government to
conduct mass testing and to build a
temporary quarantine and treatment
centre to bring the outbreak in the terri-
tory under control as soon as possible.
Ms Lam’s decision came one day after
the city’s election authorities disquali-
fied 12 opposition candidates for the
legislative council, including Joshua
Wong, a prominent pro-democracy
campaigner, on the ground that they
supported Hong Kong independence,
objected to the national security law,
lobbied foreign governments to take
measures against the territory, or ex-
pressed plans to use the parliament to
veto government plans.
The pro-Beijing administration in
Hong Kong tightened the screws yes-
terday by issuing arrest warrants for
several pro-democracy campaigners
residing overseas for collusion with for-
eign forces to endanger national secur-
ity. These include Nathan Law, a stu-
dent turned politician, who now lives in
London, as well as Simon Cheng Man-
kit, a former UK consulate employee.
Also on the list were Honcques Laus,
in the UK, Wayne Chan Ka-kui, in the
Netherlands, Samuel Chu in the United
States and Ray Wong in Germany.
The UK has suspended its extradi-
tion treaty with Hong Kong in the wake
of the imposition of the national secur-
ity law by Beijing, so any campaigners
in the UK will not face deportation.
The opposition camp had hoped to
win a majority in the parliament by rid-
ing on the public sentiment against the
new national security law.
Sophie Richardson, China director at
Human Rights Watch, called the post-
ponement “a cynical move to contain a
political emergency, not a public health
one.” Joshua Wong, 23, called Ms Lam’s
decision “the largest election fraud” in
Hong Kong’s history and vowed to fight
on.
Weekend Essay, pages 32-33Two anti-ship jet bombers have been
deployed by Beijing in “high-intensity”
military drills in the disputed South
China Sea, in an apparent show of force
against its Asian neighbours and the US.
It is the first time the Chinese mili-
tary has officially revealed the H-6J
bomber, a variant of a Soviet Tupelov
attack bomber that can carry cruise
missiles. The bombers, which are
believed to have been in service for
several years, were used to strike sur-
face targets during round-the-clock
exercises, the Chinese military said.
Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, a
spokesman for the defence ministry,
said that the People’s Liberation Army
Southern Theatre Command navy-
aviation force had carried out exercises
including long-distance strikes and
attacks on water surface targets.
Colonel Ren described the drills as a
“routine arrangement in the annual
schedule”, aimed at boosting the force’sCommand, told a video-linked nuclear
deterrence forum.
The new nuclear reality meant that
the Pentagon had to rethink its deter-
rence strategy, Admiral Richard said. It
was possible the US could face “two
very different nuclear competitors”,
which would require two methods of
deterrence.
The US is modernising its own
nuclear triad, replacing the Minuteman
III ICBMs with a land-based system,
swapping Ohio class ballistic-missile
submarines for Columbia class boats,
and building a next-generation strate-
gic stealth bomber. The B-21 Raider is
expected to make its maiden flight in
late 2021 or early 2022.
However, China, he said, had
achieved a “breathtaking expansion”.
“It has been near-stunning. They
always go faster than we do, and while
they espouse a minimum deterrence
strategy, they have a number of capabil-
ities that seem inconsistent with that,”
he added, referring to China’s invest-
ment in new road-mobile ICBMs.Beijing will be on par with
nuclear superpowers by 2030
China
Michael Evans
combat-readiness. However, the drills
have come as Beijing and Washington
are in dispute over the South China Sea,
raising concerns over any false move by
either side.
Beijing claims the South China Sea,
which is rich in natural resources and
home to some crucial shipping lanes,
almost in its entirety, despite claims
from six other governments.
On the other side of the sea, Japan’s
ruling party warned that the country
should prepare itself to launch pre-
emptive strikes on foreign missile bases,
in a move that will alarm its Asian
neighbours and provoke anxiety
among defenders of the postwar “peace
constitution”.
The defence committee of the Liberal
Democratic Party led by Shinzo Abe,
the prime minister, gave its authority to
a growing consensus in government
that Japan needs to acquire the ability
to destroy North Korean missiles on
the ground before they are launched,
rather than relying on missile defence
systems to take them out in the air.China puts on show of
force in disputed territory
Didi Tang Beijing
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia EditorBeware the trolls Wild goats make their way over a natural archway overlooking
the Atlantic on the island of East Skeam in Roaringwater Bay, west Cork, IrelandHong Kong
Didi Tang