The Times - UK (2022-02-23)

32 2GM Wednesday February 23 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

Australia will dispatch a fleet of new
long-range helicopters, hi-tech drones
and endurance snow vehicles to
Antarctica to counter increasing
Chinese and Russian expansion.
The equipment will allow the explo-
ration of vast areas of east Antarctica
that no country has yet reached, Scott
Morrison, the prime minister, said.
The drones and other autonomous
vehicles will map inaccessible and
fragile areas as well as establishing
what Morrison termed an “Antarctic
eye” that will use sensors and cameras
to feed real-time information about
activity deep inland.
The near-A$1 billion (£530 million)
strategy is designed to strengthen
Australia’s 42 per cent claim over the
territory and protect against foreign
moves to undermine the Antarctic
Treaty, signed more than 60 years ago.
There are growing concerns in the
West about China’s rapidly expanding
presence on the continent. It was not
among the dozen countries that
originally signed the treaty in 1959.
Australia, as well as Britain, is a
founding member of the treaty system
and is one of seven nations that claim
territory over the continent.
In recent years China has built four
Antarctic stations, including Zhong-
shan, a permanently occupied facility
within the Australian territory. It is also
building a station on Inexpressible

Island in Terra Nova bay. Russia, which

as the Soviet Union did sign the treaty,

operates five year-round stations and

an additional five seasonal stations.

Research stations in Antarctica are

supposed to be inspected by other sig-

natories to ensure compliance with the

treaty, which bans military activity and

mining. However, Australia has never

inspected China’s deep inland Kunlun

research station, even though it is

within its territory.

This is despite fears that scientific

technologies could have been deployed

for military purposes, in particular

China’s satellite-data-receiving capa-

bilities.

Asked today about his concerns sur-

rounding China’s Antarctic operations.

Australia’s new Antarctic

task force fends off China

Morrison said: “Well, they don’t share

the same objectives as Australia as a

treaty nation when it comes to protect-

ing Antarctica.”

He said it was important that Austra-

lia had a clear understanding about

what activities were being undertaken

in its territories.

The Australian Strategic Policy Insti-

tute warned last year that Australia

risked losing influence in Antarctica to

China and other nations if it failed to

accelerate plans to construct the first

year-round paved runway there.

Costs and pressure from conserva-

tionists forced Australia to abandon the

project in November. The proposed

1.7-mile runway, capable of landing

Boeing 787 Dreamliners and military

C-17 transports, would have required

about 11,500 prefabricated concrete

pavers, each weighing ten tonnes.

There were also fears that its con-

struction, in the Vestfold Hills region of

East Antarctica, would have interfered

with birdlife and a Weddell seal colony.

Under the new strategy, four helicop-

ters with a range of 350 miles and more

modern fixed-wing planes will join

Australia’s Antarctic aircraft. The

helicopters will be able to take off from

its new icebreaker, Nuyina.

“The money we are investing in

drone fleets, helicopters and other ve-

hicles will enable us to explore areas of

east Antarctica’s inland that no country

has ever been able to reach before,”

Morrison said on a visit to Tasmania,

where Antarctic operations are based.

Australia
Bernard Lagan Sydney

Weddell

Sea

Ross

Ice

Shelf

ANTARCTICA

Ronne

Ice Shelf

Davis

Casey

Mawson

1,000 miles

Research stations by nationality

Antarctic

Circle

Australia China Russia US

Mali junta

axes elections

for f ive years

Mali

Richard Assheton Lagos

Mali’s military rulers have postponed

elections for five years as international

outcry grows over the steady erosion of

freedoms under a junta backed by

Russian mercenaries.

The country has experienced two

successive coups and had already aban-

doned elections due this month.

At the centre of the Sahel-wide insur-

gency that has killed thousands and

displaced two million, Mali’s generals

struck a deal with the Wagner Group, a

Russian private army with links to the

Kremlin. Parliament is dominated by

members of the armed forces and

approved the delay to elections by 120

votes out of 121.

International counterterrorism has

been thrown into doubt after President

Macron said last week that France

would withdraw its troops in four to six

months. UN peacekeepers, including

300 British troops, and an EU training

mission will stay but several countries

have said their contributions may end.

President Sall of Senegal warned that

the Sahel region could fall to jihadists

and pleaded with allies to keep troops

there. “Mali cannot be abandoned. You

have to maintain your presence in the

Sahel. Africa needs it,” he said.

The UN security council was due to

meet yesterday to discuss the French

departure and the peacekeeping mis-

sion, which has been heavily reliant on

French air and medical support.

R

egister offices

across China had

long queues as

thousands of

couples tied the

knot on a day seen as

extremely romantic (Didi

Tang writes).

February 22, 2022, is

thought to be “full of love”

because the number two

sounds similar to love in the

Chinese language. It fell on

Tuesday, the second day of

the week, and is the 22nd

day of the first month on

the Chinese lunar calendar

— denoting as many as nine

references to two.

In Beijing register offices

extended their opening

hours for 4,700

applications, more than ten

times what they would

normally expect. Officials

said they would work

through and only close

when all of them had been

processed.

In the eastern city of

Nanjing 2,200 couples had

applied to get married,

compared with the usual

200 to 300, according to

local media.

In the central city of

Zhengzhou, a young man

wearing a white duvet

against the cold said that he

arrived at 5am to marry his

girlfriend of nine years.

Many hired others to queue

for them. “Today is the day

with the most love in our

lives,” a newlywed woman

told the Chinese Newsweek

magazine.

In the far west city of

Urumqi, Huang Yingjie told

local media that he and his

fiancée had planned the

date carefully. “It was two

years ago when we agreed

that we would get married

today, and I was very

touched the moment I

received the wedding

certificate,” Huang said.

In Nanjing a couple in

puffer jackets said they also

had planned to get married

on the day for a few years.

“It’s a day full of love,” the

woman said.

Gao Ying, a professor of

social development and

public policy, told China

News, a state-run news

service, that the tradition of

marrying on an auspicious

date remained popular.

“It’s common that young

people want to choose the

day when they get

married,” Gao said. “It

carries the good wishes of

the public.”

While feng shui masters

and astrologers previously

picked which numbers and

dates would be lucky, more

recently Chinese couples

have focused on linguistic

associations. March 14,

2021, was considered a good

day because it sounds

similar to “a lifetime” in

Chinese. Other auspicious

days featured patterns of

numbers, such as

December 12, 2012.

Valentine’s Day and Qixi,

the festival celebrating a

mythic love story in August,

are also always popular.

Date with destiny, letters,

page 28

It takes two...

Chinese flock

to marry on

22/02/2022

HAO QUNYING/VCG/GETTY IMAGES

A couple in Handan in eastern China. Some queued overnight to secure a spot, while others had made their plans many years ago

Grace Mugabe taken

off EU sanctions list

Zimbabwe The EU has lifted

sanctions on three public figures

in Zimbabwe, including the

widow of Robert Mugabe, the late

dictator. Grace Mugabe,

Constantine Chiwenga, the

present vice-president who led

the military coup in 2017 against

her husband, and General Philip

Valerio Sibanda, the army chief,

had been on the sanctions list

since 2002 over political violence,

human rights abuses and the

failure to hold free and fair

elections. The EU said that it

would extend its arms embargo

and asset freeze against Zimbabwe

Defence Industries, a state-owned

arms manufacturer that is the last

to languish on the sanctions list,

which had included about 200

people and 30 firms and state

utilities. Respect for human rights

had not improved, the EU said.

Gibraltar tugs fight fire

on ship with 4,000 cars

Azores Tug boats from Gibraltar

were spraying water on a ship

carrying 4,000 cars that has been

on fire off the Azores for a week.

Some of the Porsches, Audis and

Bentleys on board the Felicity

Ace have lithium-ion batteries,

which have fuelled the fire. The

22 crew were moved to safety last

Wednesday. More boats with

firefighting equipment are due to

arrive today and Friday. (Reuters)

Remains of sacrificed

children discovered

Peru Archaeologists have found

the remains of eight children and

12 adults thought to have been

sacrificed about 800-1,200 years

ago to accompany a mummy. The

remains were unearthed in a dig

at the pre-Incan Cajamarquilla

complex east of Lima, outside a

tomb where the team from the

National University of San

Marcos in Peru had discovered an

ancient mummy. (Reuters)

Anti-China campaigner

arrested in Mongolia

Mongolia Police have arrested

Munkhbayar Chuluundorj, a

prominent activist who attacked

close links with China. Mongolia

is landlocked and depends on

mineral exports to China and

Russia but there have been

protests in the capital, Ulan Bator,

over the language policy in the

Chinese region of Inner

Mongolia, where critics say Han

culture is being imposed. (AFP)

Teenager’s victory stuns

world chess champion

India A 16-year-old grandmaster

has beaten the world number one,

Magnus Carlsen, 31, in the

Airthings Masters online chess

championship. Rameshbabu

Praggnanandhaa, who became

the youngest international master

aged ten in 2016, won late on

Monday with a 39-move game

playing black. He is the youngest

to beat Carlsen since he became

world champion in 2013. (AFP)