World

As Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Hong Kong Friday after a rare visit to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain, reactions to his speech ranged from deeming it “reassuring” to terming his stance “delusional”.

The Chinese Communist Party places great importance on anniversaries, and the trip presented Xi with an opportunity to emphasise China’s authority over Hong Kong after three years of political upheaval there.

“Xi’s speech and language reiterated the political message to Hong Kong since the national security law,” political scientist Kenneth Chan from Hong Kong Baptist University told AFP. 

“Beijing now exercises total control over the city through the loyalists.” 

Since China imposed a national security law on the city following huge pro-democracy protests that engulfed the city in 2019, dissent has been stifled in the once politically vibrant city. 

Xi’s insistence that democracy was flourishing despite the years-long political crackdown was met with scorn by those who had been most affected by Beijing’s tightening grip on the city. 

Ted Hui, a former opposition lawmaker who fled overseas in 2020 after being arrested multiple times, said Xi’s remark that “true democracy” only began after the handover was “a lie”. 

“As early as the 1970s and 1980s, Hong Kong people had started our own democracy movement, and begun to develop our civil society,” he told AFP. 

He said that under British rule the city had never had full democracy, but that now “we have lost both the formality and the substance of democracy, particularly after the implementation of the national security law”. 

One of his former colleagues, Emily Lau, said that “true democracy never started in Hong Kong –- neither before or after 1997”. 

She agreed that now, the city had “lost both freedoms and democracy”.

– ‘Clear and solid’ –

After waving Xi off at a high-speed train station, new Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said the visit had been “inspiring”. 

Xi said repeatedly that One Country, Two Systems — the governance model agreed by Britain and China under which the city would keep some autonomy and freedoms — was working well and did not need to change. 

Lee said Xi’s remarks were a “very clear and very solid” declaration. 

The sentiment was echoed by Hong Kong’s Law Society, which put out a statement saying Xi’s “clear reassurances and inspirational directions on the well-being of Hong Kong and our integration into the overall development of our country were encouraging”. 

Hui was scathing of the idea that the governance model was working well. 

“I think it’s delusional to say that Hong Kong can continue to maintain its unique advantages under the current system,” he said. “Because Hong Kong’s uniqueness used to lie in its liberty, its autonomy in policy making.”

On Hong Kong’s streets, wet from thunderstorms that pummelled the city all day Friday, 46-year-old Jonathan Yeung said Xi’s position that One Country, Two Systems had no reason to change was “laughable”. 

“He was behind the biggest changes,” he said.  

“(Xi’s) speech was just a to-do list for John Lee, I don’t think he was addressing Hong Kongers like me.” 

A jewellery shop owner surnamed Wan, 44, said he thought it was good Xi had set out clear priorities for the next administration. 

He agreed with Xi’s sentiment that Hong Kong “could not afford to fall into chaos”. 

“The past few years were very tough, no matter one’s politics and occupation,” Wan said. 

In his speech, Xi put particular emphasis on young people, saying that authorities “must enhance their national pride and sense of ownership”.

A man surnamed Lee, a 19-year-old university student, was unimpressed by Xi’s exhortations.

“When he says more focus on youth, that only means more nationalistic agenda being pushed in schools,” he told AFP. 

“He doesn’t care what young people themselves want.” 

They say you never forget your first love, and after pining for his stolen guitar for almost half a century, Canadian rock star Randy Bachman has finally been reunited with the instrument which an eagle-eyed fan tracked down in Japan.

Bachman, who wrote the original “American Woman” with his band The Guess Who, was in Tokyo for the emotional handover on Friday — 46 years after his cherished orange Gretsch was snatched from a Toronto hotel.

“Wow,” a stunned Bachman said, holding the guitar lovingly and tuning it up on stage before playing in a special concert at the Canadian Embassy.

The 78-year-old told AFP he had been “pretty much devastated” by the theft.

“With that guitar, I wrote many million-selling songs… it was like my magical guitar. And then when it’s suddenly gone, the magic is gone.”

The rocker bought the now vintage 6120 Chet Atkins model as a teenager in the early 1960s with $400 painstakingly saved up from mowing lawns, washing cars and babysitting.

He had long admired the instrument, spending hours staring at it in a shop window in Winnipeg with his friend and fellow musician Neil Young.

It meant so much to Bachman that he would chain it to hotel toilets on tour. “Everybody in the band made fun of me, but because I worked so hard to get this guitar, I didn’t want it stolen.”

But in 1976, he entrusted the guitar to a roadie who put it in a room with other luggage while the band was checking out.

Before they knew it, it was gone.

– Some sleuthing and a handover –

Over the decades, Bachman hunted for his Gretsch, which has a small, dark knot in the wood grain on its front, but to no avail — until a Canadian fan decided to help with the search from his home in 2020.

William Long compared old images of the stolen instrument with new and archived pictures of the model on guitar shop websites around the world.

“Yeah, I’m a sleuth,” Long, 58, told AFP. “I was confident I was going to find it. I got the process down so quick — I went through 300 images of orange Gretches.”

None were a perfect match, until he found one on the site of a Tokyo guitar shop with the tell-tale mark.

More searching pointed Long to a Japanese musician called Takeshi, who he spotted playing Bachman’s beloved guitar in a YouTube video.

Takeshi, who had always wanted a vintage Gretsch, says he bought Bachman’s guitar in 2014 for around 850,000 yen ($6,300).

Long alerted Bachman to his discovery, and the musicians arranged to meet in Tokyo to swap Bachman’s original guitar with another of the same type, also made in 1957.

On Friday, at an event held on Canada Day, the pair shared a big hug and then jammed together.

They performed songs including “American Woman”, the 1970 hit later covered by US singer Lenny Kravitz, and “Takin’ Care of Business” by Bachman’s other band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Bachman is not the only rock star to be reunited with a long-lost guitar: last year, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page also tracked one down that went missing at an airport decades ago.

But Bachman, who had given up ever finding the guitar after four decades of searching, said he had been touched by Long’s “random act of kindness”.

“When I was playing it, I looked down and figured -– time has stood still, or 50 years has just flown by really fast,” he said. 

“I couldn’t have written this if I wrote it as a script. Nobody would believe it. But it’s true. It’s really great.”

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

 – Deadly strike on Odessa – 

At least 18 people are killed and dozens wounded in missile strikes on Ukraine’s Odessa region.

The strikes come a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on the strategic Snake Island off the coast of Odessa.

Early Friday the missiles hit a nine-storey apartment building and a recreation centre about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Odessa, emergency services say.

– Snake Island decision ‘changes situation’: Zelensky –

Russia’s decision to abandon Snake Island “changes the situation in the Black Sea considerably”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

“It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already considerably limits the actions of the occupiers,” he says Thursday in his daily address.

A strategic target, Snake Island sits aside shipping lanes near Odessa port. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence says in its latest intelligence update Russia has highly likely withdrawn “owing to the isolation of the garrison and its increasing vulnerability to Ukrainian strikes, rather than as a ‘gesture of good will’, as it has claimed.”

The Russian defence ministry  on Thursday described the retreat as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine.

– Lysychansk pounded –

The city of Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region continues to come under sustained bombardment, Sergiy Gaiday — governor of the Lugansk region, says. 

Capturing the city would allow the Russians to push deeper in the industrial Donbas, which has become the focus of their offensive since failing to capture Kyiv after their February 24 invasion.

“Residents of Lysychansk barely leave their basements and homes,” Gaiday writes on Telegram. 

The Russians had taken control of parts of the city’s oil refinery, he says. 

– EU chief warns Ukraine on corruption –

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tells Ukraine’s parliament that EU membership is “within reach” but urges them to press forward with anti-corruption reforms.

“You have created an impressive anti-corruption machine,” she tells lawmakers by video link. “But now these institutions need teeth, and the right people in senior posts.”

Ukraine applied for EU membership just five days after Russia’s February 24 invasion and the 27 member states accepted its candidacy on June 23, in a strong signal of support.

But the accession process could take many years.

She stressed that Brussels and the EU member states were firmly behind Ukraine in both its battle with the ongoing Russian invasion and the quest to be “reunited with our European family”.

But she also insisted on the need to build on reforms already introduced since Ukraine’s 2014 revolt against its previous government to battle corruption and the grip of oligarchs on its economy.

– Ukraine exports electricity to EU –

Ukraine has started exporting electricity to the EU via Romania, President Zelensky says, as Russia reduces gas supplies to the bloc.

Several European countries, highly dependent upon Russian gas for their energy needs, have been forced to look for alternatives as Moscow slashes deliveries in response to their support for Ukraine.

“This is only the first stage. We are preparing to increase supply,” Zelensky says, adding “a significant part of the Russian gas consumed by Europeans can be replaced”.

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At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded Friday in missile strikes on Ukraine’s Odessa region, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a strategic island in a major setback to the Kremlin’s invasion. 

The news came after NATO leaders wrapped up a summit in Madrid, with US President Joe Biden announcing $800 million in new weapons for Ukraine.

“We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine, as long as it takes to make sure they are not defeated by Russia,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared surging diplomatic tensions to the Cold War, telling reporters: “As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending… The process has begun.”

There was a glimmer of hope however, when Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a message from their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

It came after Widodo visited both Moscow and Kyiv. Neither side has revealed what was in the note.

Early Friday, missiles were fired at an apartment building and recreation centre about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the conflict. 

The nine-storey apartment building was partially destroyed, leaving 14 people dead and 30 wounded, the emergency services said. 

Three people, including a child, were killed and one wounded in the attack on the recreation centre, they said.

The strikes, in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, said Odessa military administration spokesman Sergiy Bratchuk.

“The worst case scenario played out and two strategic aircraft came to the Odessa region,” he said in a TV interview, adding they had fired “very heavy and very powerful” missiles. 

Earlier this week, there was global outrage when a Russian strike destroyed a shopping centre in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, killing at least 18 civilians. Putin has denied Moscow’s forces were responsible.

– ‘Goodwill gesture’ –

Friday’s attacks came a day after Russian troops abandoned their positions on Snake Island, off the coast of Odessa.

The island had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the first days of the war, when the rocky outcrop’s defenders told a Russian warship to “go f*ck yourself” after it called on them to surrender — an incident that spurred a defiant meme.

It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near the port of Odessa. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.

The decision to abandon Snake Island “changes the situation in the Black Sea considerably”, Zelensky said in his daily address Thursday.

“It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already considerably limits the actions of the occupiers.”

The Russian defence ministry statement described the retreat as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine.

In peacetime, Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, but Russia’s invasion has damaged farmland and seen Ukraine’s ports seized, razed or blockaded — sparking concerns about food shortages, particularly in poor countries.

Western powers have accused Putin of using the trapped harvest as a weapon to increase pressure on the international community, and Russia has been accused of stealing grain. 

– Donbas under fire –

On Thursday, a ship carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain sailed from Ukraine’s occupied port of Berdyansk, said the regional leader appointed by the Russian occupation forces.

Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Moscow administration, said Russia’s Black Sea ships “are ensuring the security” of the journey, adding that the port had been de-mined.

The conflict in Ukraine dominated the NATO summit in Madrid this week, as the alliance officially invited Sweden and Finland to join, and Biden announced new deployments of US troops, ships and planes to Europe.

Russian missiles continued to rain down elsewhere in Ukraine, with the city of Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region coming under sustained bombardment. 

Capturing the city would allow the Russians to push deeper in the Donbas, which has become the focus of their offensive since failing to capture Kyiv after their February invasion.

Sergiy Gaiday — governor of the Lugansk region, which includes Lysychansk — said the city continued to face heavy shelling. 

“Residents of Lysychansk barely leave their basements and homes,” he wrote on Telegram, adding fires had broken out in houses and shopping malls. 

The Russians had taken control of parts of the city’s oil refinery, he said. 

Ukraine was recently granted “candidate status” by the European Union as it pushes to join the bloc, although membership is likely still years away. 

On Friday, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told Ukraine’s parliament that membership was “within reach” but urged them to press forward with anti-corruption reforms.

Zelensky meanwhile announced Ukraine had begun exporting electricity to the EU, via Romania, as fears grow of an energy crisis in Europe due to reduced Russian gas deliveries. 

The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada showed up Friday at a major gathering of clerics in the Afghan capital called to rubber-stamp the hardline Islamist group’s rule over the country.

Akhundzada, who has not been filmed or photographed in public since the Taliban returned to power in August, would address the gathering later, government spokesman Bilal Karimi tweeted.

His arrival, broadcast on state radio, was greeted with cheers and chants including “Long live the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, the Taliban’s name for the country.

Over 3,000 clerics and elders have gathered in Kabul since Thursday for the three-day meeting, and Akhundzada’s appearance had been rumoured for days — although media are barred from covering the event.

He rarely leaves Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace and spiritual heartland, and apart from one undated photograph and several audio recordings of speeches, has almost no digital footprint.

But analysts say Akhundzada, believed to be in his 70s, has an iron grip on the movement and bears the title “Commander of the Faithful”. 

Akhundzada’s appearance comes a week after a powerful earthquake struck the east of the country, killing over 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

No women are attending the clerics meeting, but a Taliban source told AFP this week thorny issues such as girls’ education — which has divided opinion in the movement — would be discussed.

Since the Taliban’s return, secondary school girls have been barred from education and women dismissed from government jobs, forbidden from travelling alone, and ordered to dress in clothing that covers everything but their faces.

They have also outlawed playing non-religious music, banned the portrayal of human figures in advertising, ordered TV channels to stop showing movies and soap operas featuring uncovered women, and told men they should dress in traditional garb and grow their beards.

– Heightened security –

The Taliban have thrown a dense security blanket over the capital for the meeting, but on Thursday two gunmen were shot dead near the venue.

Officials said the two started firing from a rooftop but were “quickly eliminated by Mujahideen with the help of Allah the Almighty”.

Officials have provided scant details of the three-day men-only “jirga” — a traditional gathering of clerics and influential people that settles differences by consensus.

But most speeches so far have focused on loyalty to the Taliban regime, and strict punishment for those who oppose it.

“Obedience is the most important principle of the system,” Habibullah Haqqani, the head of the gathering, said in his opening remarks.

“We must obey all our leaders in all affairs, sincerely and truly.”

One leading cleric said Thursday that anyone attempting to topple the Taliban regime should be beheaded.

“This (Taliban) flag has not been raised easily, and it will not be lowered easily,” Mujib ur Rahman Ansari, the imam of Gazargah Mosque in Herat, told the gathering.

“All religious scholars from across Afghanistan should come to this conclusion… whoever commits the smallest act against our Islamic government should be beheaded.”

Women’s rights activists have slammed their lack of participation.

“Women should be part of the decisions about their fate,” Razia Barakzai told AFP Thursday.

“Life has been taken away from Afghan women.”