12/08/2025

TUESDAY | AUG 12, 2025

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Senior Chinese diplomat detained

o Veteran left out of recent govt reshuffle

Miles to go on global plastic pollution treaty GENEVA: Countries remained at loggerheads yesterday over how to tackle plastic pollution, with only four days left to craft a landmark treaty on reining in the ever-growing scourge. While plastic has transformed modern life, plastic pollution poses an increasing threat to the environment and the human body – and every day the garbage accumulates on land and in the oceans. The 184 countries meeting at the United Nations to sculpt an accord setting out the way forward return to the negotiating table after a day off on Sunday to reflect on their differences. The first week of talks in Geneva fell behind schedule and failed to produce a clear text, with states still deeply divided at square one: the purpose and scope of the treaty they started negotiating two and a half years ago. Last week, working groups met on technical topics ranging from the design of plastic to waste management, production, financing for recycling, plastic reuse, and funding waste collection in developing countries. They also discussed molecules and chemical additives that pose health risks. A nebulous cluster of mostly oil-producing states calling themselves the Like-Minded Group – including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, Iran, and Malaysia – want the treaty to focus primarily on waste management. The United States and India are also close to this club. At the other end of the spectrum, a growing faction calling themselves the “ambitious” group want radical action written into the treaty, including measures to curb the damage caused by plastic garbage, such as phasing out the most dangerous chemicals. The draft treaty has ballooned from 22 to 35 pages – with the number of brackets in the text going up near five-fold to almost 1,500 as countries insert a blizzard of conflicting wishes and ideas. “With four more days to go, we have more square brackets in the text than plastic in the sea. It’s time to get results,” Roswall said. In total, 70 ministers and around 30 senior government officials are expected in Geneva from today and could perhaps help break the deadlock. – AFP A person familiar with China’s Foreign Ministry said that Liu was liked and well respected by Chinese diplomats for his outstanding ability and warm, friendly demeanour. – Reuters During a high-profile 2024 trip to the United States, which was widely viewed by analysts as a foreign minister trial run, he met a wide range of counterparts, including then-secretary of state Antony Blinken. Born in the northeastern province of Jilin, Liu majored in English at Beijing Foreign Studies University and studied international relations at Oxford before taking up his first post as a translator with the Foreign Ministry. He has served in China’s mission to Britain and later as ambassador to Indonesia and the Philippines. Unusually for a Chinese diplomat, he served two successive postings in China’s anti corruption bureaucracy between 2015 and 2018, when he helped track down corrupt officials who fled overseas. During his time as ministry spokesman, he was known for humorous, spontaneous comments while making a robust defence of China’s position.

respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. At an annual forum at Beijing’s Tsinghua University early last month, Liu said he was optimistic about the future of US-China relations and that it was “unimaginable that China and the US will ever go to war”. Liu was known for the unusual frequency and intensity of his overseas travel unlike his more low-profile predecessors. Foreign diplomats in Beijing praised his confident and relaxed manner, fluent English and ability to engage spontaneously without pre

Party, the body in charge of managing ties with foreign political parties. His profile remains on the department’s website. He was widely viewed by diplomats in Beijing and analysts as a likely candidate to succeed veteran Wang Yi as foreign minister but was not promoted to the role at a recent annual government reshuffle. “If true, Liu Jianchao’s downfall will lead to further power vacuum at the top of China’s foreign affairs portfolio,” said Wen-Ti Sung, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.

BEIJING: Senior Chinese diplomat Liu Jianchao (pic), widely seen as a potential foreign minister, was taken away by authorities for questioning early this month, five people familiar with the matter said. Liu, 61, was detained after returning from a work trip to Singapore, South Africa and Algeria, which ended on July 30, according to the sources. His house was searched by authorities early this month, two of the people said. The sources did not know why the authorities questioned Liu. They could not be named for safety reasons. Liu’s detention was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Liu’s detention marks the highest-level disappearance of a diplomat since China ousted its former foreign minister and President Xi Jinping’s protege, Qin Gang, in 2023 following an unexplained public absence. Since 2022, Oxford-educated Liu has led the International Department of the Communist One killed, dozens injured in western Turkiye earthquake ANKARA: A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sindirgi in western Turkiye on Sunday, the Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) said, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more. The quake was felt across several cities in the west of the country, including Istanbul and the tourist hotspot of Izmir. “An 81-year-old person died soon after having been rescued from under the rubble,” Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told journalists at Sindirgi, the epicentre of the quake. Another 29 people had been injured, but not seriously, he said. The quake brought down 16 buildings in Sindirgi and its surroundings, of which four were inhabited, including a three-storey building in the city centre, he said. Several people were pulled alive from the rubble of the three-storey building, where six people were living. The person who died had also been buried under the rubble there before being freed. Earlier, Mayor Serkan Sak had told Turkish private channel NTV: “Four were rescued from the rubble.” Efforts to extract two others were ongoing, he added. Some 319 first responders were deployed to the affected zone, AFAD said. The quake hit at 7.53pm on Sunday (1.53am Monday in Malaysia), with some 20 aftershocks

prepared talking points. “He knows how to shape Chinese narratives in a way that’s engaging and appealing to foreigners,” said one who met him in late 2023. Another diplomat who met his aides around that time said they were very confident that he would soon be promoted to foreign minister.

“It removes a frontrunner to succeed Wang Yi and deprives China of a potential next steward for China’s foreign policy.” State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for the Chinese government, and the Chinese Communist Party International Department did not immediately

Residents of Sindirgi town rushing to a collapsed building to search for survivors. – REUTERSPIC

ranging from 3.5 to 4.6 magnitude. Turkiye is crisscrossed by several geological fault lines which have previously caused catastrophes in the country. A quake in February 2023 in the southwest

killed at least 53,000 people and devastated Antakya, site of the ancient city of Antioch. At the beginning of July, a 5.8-magnitude tremor in the same region resulted in one death and injured 69 people. – AFP

Japan urges evacuations after heavy rains TOKYO: Japanese authorities yesterday urged millions to evacuate their homes after heavy rains unleashed floods and landslides in the country’s southwest, leaving several residents missing. Television footage from various “The situation is life-threatening and safety must be ensured immediately,” the weather agency said. “Maximum vigilance is required even in places where disasters are not normally considered to occur.”

his house while he stood outside his vehicle, said a town official. His wife and their two children were safe inside the car, the official said. In Misato town, also in Kumamoto, rescuers were trying to reach an elderly man trapped inside his house after it was struck by a landslide, the town’s duty official said. “Rain was so heavy that I couldn’t see what was in front of me for four to five hours,” said Misato town official Kazuhiro Masunaga. Two people in Fukuoka city reportedly were swept away in a surging river on Sunday and remained missing, national broadcaster NHK said. – AFP

Evacuation advisories and warnings were issued to more than three million residents in the southwestern regions, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Some 384,000 residents, mostly in Kumamoto, faced Japan’s most serious evacuation warning, it said. A man in Kosa town in Kumamoto went missing early yesterday after a landslide hit near

communities in Kumamoto prefecture showed houses, stores and vehicles submerged in about a metre of water. Surging rivers swept away vehicles and damaged roads. In six hours early yesterday, more than 37cm of rain fell in Kumamoto prefecture’s hardest-hit Tamana city, a record for the area, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.