How to celebrate International Women’s Day

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Anjuman Ali

Women around the world will celebrate International Women’s Day on Wednesday. In Russia, flower sales reportedly double as women are gifted blooms. In China, women get the day off work. And in Uganda, government agencies hold national celebrations for women.

In European and Latin American countries, March 8 has been a day to rally in support of gender equality and against violence toward women.

But in the United States, the day is treated much like any other. My friends and I don’t celebrate over brunches or give cards and flowers. In my experience, women in the United States are missing out.

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to revel in a day of sisterhood and bond with the important women in our lives.

When I’ve been in my home country of India on IWD, I have joined family and friends in making it a joyous and festive day.

One of my favorite memories is celebrating with the young daughters of my friends, who joined us at a lunch where we shared stories of what generations of women have achieved. We talked about everything from the right to vote to being heads of governments and being told how to think to becoming thought leaders.

My friends and I also mark the day by volunteering for nonprofits and contributing to charities that support women’s rights. We know that many women are struggling with issues of physical safety, insecurity over food and shelter, and lack of access to education and health care. There is still much to strive for to make girls and women feel safe and to realize their dreams.

The United Nations recognized the day for the first time in 1975. Several countries, including Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau and Ukraine, now celebrate IWD as a national holiday.

This year, the theme of IWD is #EmbraceEquity, and the aim is to work for “equity–based solutions” that “take into account the diverse lived experiences of individuals and communities, adapting services and policies according to these differences.”

Here are some ways to join the cause and mark this day:

Donate or volunteer: There are many community groups helping girls and women. Pick a cause, learn about it and support a group helping with it. Certain issues such as access to clean water, sanitation and education disproportionately affect women.

Support global campaigns for gender equity: UN Women is one of many organizations that are championing women’s empowerment.

Celebrate!: You can join events that will be held in cities around the globe or create your own celebration.

Happy International Women’s Day!

(Source: The Washington Post)

Two-way trade in the spotlight for PM’s visit to India

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese departs for India today, the world’s fifth largest and fastest growing major economy.

Minister for Trade and Toursim will lead a delegation to improve two-way trade between our countries and is accompanied by Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell, and Minister for Resources, Madeleine King.

It’s the first visit by an Australian prime minister in six years and comes on the heels of the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which entered into force in December.

ECTA takes advantage of the complementary nature of our economic relationship, creating jobs and opportunities in both countries.

Under ECTA, there is expanded work, study and travel opportunities for Indians in Australia.

More than 85 per cent of Australian goods exports to India are now tariff-free, rising to 90 per cent over the next six years. And 96 per cent of imports from India are now tariff-free — a figure that will reach 100 per cent in four years.

India is Australia’s sixth-largest trading partner, fourth-largest export market and second-largest export market for education.[1]

Our cooperation is growing exponentially — in economic, social and cultural links, and in education, technology, energy, and defence.

During this trip the Prime Minister will visit Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. It continues a long line of prime ministerial visits to the sub-continent since Sir Robert Menzies first travelled there in 1950.[2] Formal trade relations began several years earlier with the opening of the Trade Office in Sydney in 1941. This later became the Consulate General of India.

In 1968, Prime Minister Indira Ghandi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia and many state visits have been made both ways over the last 70 years by governors-general, foreign ministers, deputy prime ministers and other government officials.

Visits like today’s are essential to strengthening the Australia-India relationship, a relationship with a strong familial component.

The Indian community in Australia is our fastest-growing diaspora, with the latest census showing 976,000 or 3.8 per cent of Australia’s population identify as having Indian heritage. This includes 673,000 people, or 2.6 per cent of our population, who are Indian born.[3]

Prime Minister Modi will visit Australia this year for the Quad Leaders’ Summit, and Prime Minister Albanese will return to India in September to attend the G20 Summit.

(Source: Australian Government)

Suppressing China won’t make America great – Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang

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Kelly Ng

China’s foreign minister says China-US relations have “seriously deviated” while warning of potential conflict.

“Containment and suppression will not make America great. It will not stop the rejuvenation of China,” said Qin Gang.

Mr Qin, China’s former ambassador to the US, held his first press conference as foreign minister on Tuesday.

The spy balloon saga has heightened tensions between the superpowers despite recent efforts to improve ties.

“It [the US] regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong,” said Mr Qin, speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China’s parliament in Beijing.

The foreign minister was responding to a question on whether a healthy China-US relationship was still possible as differences between the countries grew.

The US called for establishing “guardrails”, but what it really wants is for China to not hit back with words or actions when provoked, Mr Qin added.

He was referring to US President Joe Biden’s comments last month that the US would “compete fully with China but [is] not looking for conflict”.

Mr Qin said: “If the US does not put on the brakes and continues to roar down the wrong road, no amount of guardrails can stop the derailment and overturning, and it is bound to fall into conflict and confrontation. Who will bear its disastrous consequences?”

He also said the diplomatic crisis caused by the balloon incident could have been averted but the US acted with “the presumption of guilt”.

Washington has previously described the suspected spy balloon as a “clear violation of US sovereignty”. Beijing admitted the object belonged to them, but said it was a civilian airship blown off-course.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated during former US President Donald Trump’s administration, which launched a trade war against China in 2018. The two superpowers continue to clash on various issues, including Taiwan, China’s militarisation of the South China Sea and the origins of Covid.

Mr Qin’s comments follow Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unusually direct rebuke of the US on Monday.

Mr Xi said “Western countries led by the US had implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression” against China and that this brought “severe challenges” to the country.

On Tuesday, Mr Qin said an “invisible hand” was driving the Ukraine crisis but did not name any country or individual. He reiterated that China had not provided weapons to either side of the Russia-Ukraine war and called for peace talks to resume.

However, he asked: “Why should the US demand that China refrain from supplying arms to Russia when it sells arms to Taiwan?”

The Ukraine crisis has reached a “critical juncture”, he said.

“Either a ceasefire will stop the war, restore peace and embark on a political settlement, or fuel the fire, expand the crisis and drag it into the abyss of losing control.”

Mr Qin, 56, was named China’s foreign minister in December 2022 and is one of the youngest appointees to this post in the country’s history. He replaced Wang Yi, who was promoted to the politburo of the ruling Communist Party in October that year.

A trusted aide of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Qin is well known as a tough-talking diplomat.

(Source: BBC)

China accuses U.S. of containment and warns of potential conflict

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JOHN RUWITCH

Chinese leader Xi Jinping name-checked the United States in remarks during the annual session of parliament under way in Beijing this week, saying it was leading Western countries in an effort to encircle and suppress China.

The rare explicit comment was followed on Tuesday by a barrage of scorn and criticism aimed squarely at Washington from China’s new foreign minister and former ambassador to the U.S., Qin Gang.

Analysts said the verbal blitz may signal a new level of unhappiness from Beijing with the United States, and could foreshadow fresh policy actions.

U.S. accused of ‘containment’

On Monday, Xi visited a breakout session of delegates to the legislative advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which meets along side the National People’s Congress.

“Western countries led by the U.S. have implemented comprehensive containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” Xi was quoted as saying.

The U.S. has, in recent months, broadened its crackdown on China’s semiconductor industry, and looked to expand and revitalize its alliances in Asia. In addition to the Quad, it is set to announce deepened cooperation with AUKUS, a trilateral security pact it formed in 2021, and just last month announced expanded access to bases in the Philippines.

Top leaders in China rarely single out other countries or leaders by name for criticism, preferring to leave it implicit or refer vaguely to “some countries” or “individual countries.”

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Qin Gang leveled criticism directly at the United States for its policies on China, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, to name a few. He even blasted the recent string of interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, designed to curb inflation at home, for creating debt crises in other countries.

“The U.S. claims it wants to ‘compete to win’ with China, and does not seek conflict. But in fact, the so-called ‘competition’ by the U.S. is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game of life and death,” Qin said.

Qin also slammed the U.S. for talking about respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity when it comes to Ukraine but not Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing says is part of China. “Why does the U.S. ask China not to provide weapons to Russia while it keeps selling arms to Taiwan?” Qin said.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said it intends to compete with China and wants dialogue to put “guardrails” around the relationship, so that it does not veer into conflict. Qin said U.S. demands were unreasonable.

“When the U.S. says it wants to ‘install guardrails and have ‘no conflict’ in China-U.S. relations, it really means that the U.S. requires China not to fight back when hit or scolded, but this cannot be done!” he said.

Qin blamed the deterioration in China-U.S. relations on Washington, and said it was incumbent upon the United States to turn things around.

“If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” he said.

Level of unhappiness could lead to ‘substantive actions’

Manoj Kewalramani, with the Takshashila Institution in India, follows the language of China’s leaders and propaganda closely. He said the explicit naming of America by Xi was a signal of the level of unhappiness.

“It’s like when you’re angry with your spouse, or your kid, you start middle-naming them, you know?” he said.

Kewalramani said the balloon crisis angered Chinese officials and may have been the trigger for this shift. Still, he did not think China’s policy toward the U.S. would change substantively.

But Scott Kennedy, a China hand at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is not so sure.

“Nothing Xi Jinping or the Chinese leadership in general says about foreign policy or the U.S. in particular is by accident,” he said.

“By directly pointing to the U.S. as the source of major problems around the world, by name, you feel like that sets the possibility for China to potentially take substantive actions that they haven’t been willing to take before,” he said.

It also “sets a tone that other officials within China will have to follow.”

(Source: NPR)