No way' is Japan handling its China relationship better than Australia, says Japanese ambassador in Canberra

Japan's ambassador in Canberra has firmly backed the Federal Government's approach to China, saying he "applauds" the way Australia has resisted economic pressure from Beijing.

Shingo Yamagami also rejected suggestions that Japan has managed ties with the emerging superpower more skilfully than Australia, saying his government was "struggling every day" to manage its relationship with China.

Speaking to the National Press Club in Canberra, Mr Yamagami said the relationship between Japan and Australia had undergone an "astonishing" transformation and the two countries now shared close strategic ties.

He made a clear reference to the series of trade sanctions which China's government has imposed on Australia as the two countries continue to clash over the COVID-19 outbreak, human rights abuses, foreign investment and cyber-attacks.

Across the Pacific, undersea cables weave between island nations, bringing them online and, in some cases, connecting them to Australia, but some governments fear this interconnectivity comes with risk.

Currently, there is discussion about how the small island nation of Nauru will connect to high-speed internet. 

There was a plan for a World Bank project to connect Nauru to Guam � a regional hub and a territory of the United States � but a Chinese company bid for the project and, according to Reuters, Washington considered that a security risk and the project was put on ice. 

Now, there are reports Nauru could connect to the Coral Sea Cable, which attaches to Australia at Sydney's Tamarama Beach. 

Questions remain around who would build the Nauru project and whether Australia would allow it.   

Huawei in the Pacific 

Undersea cables sit at the intersection of technology, international aid, cybersecurity and diplomacy. 

For island nations in the Pacific to access high-speed internet, they need to route traffic through one of the three regional hubs � Sydney, Guam and Hawaii. 

Like ports and airstrips, cables are infrastructure projects that companies � and countries � can build in the Pacific that could be considered a strategic asset now or in years to come. 

Take the Coral Sea Cable as an example. It connects Port Moresby in Papua New Guniea and Honiara in the Solomon Islands to Sydney. 

Australian aid paid for most of the Coral Sea Cable and pushed out a deal the Solomon Islands had done with Chinese firm Huawei Marine.

The contract was for Huawei Marine to lay a cable between Honiara and Sydney, which would have seen Chinese hardware connecting to the backbone of Australia's domestic internet infrastructure.

"That was seen as a red line that Australia would not cross and so we jumped in with a better deal providing the cable as a grant that would be implemented with a procurement partner of Australia's choosing � that wouldn't be Chinese," director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Island Program Jonathan Pryke said.  

This was at a time when Australia had just banned Huawei from the 5G and NBN networks.Huawei Marine, now trading as HMN Technologies, also bid on the East Micronesia cable project that would have seen Nauru, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia connect, via several other cables, to Guam, but the US reportedly had concerns about the Chinese firm's involvement.

The project is now on hold because the bids from all three companies that pitched for the job were deemed ineligible. 

"The process has concluded without an award due to non-responsiveness to the requirements of the bidding documents," a spokesperson for the World Bank said in a statement to the ABC. 

The details behind the decision to rule out all three bids, one of which was from HMN Technologies, are confidential, but the World Bank did say it was working with governments in the region on the next steps. The ABC did not receive a response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry but, in an earlier statement to Reuters, a spokesperson said: "As a matter of principle, I want to emphasise that Chinese companies have always maintained an excellent record in cyber security." 

"The Chinese government has always encouraged Chinese companies to engage in foreign investment and cooperation according to market principles, international regulations and local laws."

Dr Amanda Watson from Australian National University has mapped cable projects right across the Asia-Pacific region. 

She said there were two types of cybersecurity risks in undersea cable projects. 

"The first one is if you have internet bandwidth availability that's increased, then there's just a general cybersecurity risk increase because you might have citizens, businesses or utilities that could potentially be victims of cyber attacks," she said.

"The second type of cybersecurity issue would be perceived questions about whether technologies from certain countries might be at risk of data exfiltration, which is where a company or a country might try to extract data from a modem or a cable." 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-24/china-huawei-build-png-cable-that-connects-to-sydney/100249922

London: Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told a British audience that there is no way he would sign a trade deal with China today.

Speaking alongside his new boss, the UK Secretary for Trade Liz Truss, the former prime minister said Australia had indulged in �wishful thinking� to believe that the Chinese would become �more like us� as a result of more global economic integration.As prime minister, Abbott struck the China-Australia free trade deal in 2014 and lauded it as one of his government�s biggest achievements in office.

'Lying flat': The millennials quitting China's '996' work culture to live 'free of anxiety'

Two years ago, Li Chuang traded the bustling metropolis of Beijing for the tranquillity of an ancient monastery in central China. 

At the age of 32, the daily grind of working as an editor at a high-profile publishing house had taken its toll. 

"It wasn't about the pace being fast or slow but rather I felt it was meaningless," Li says. 

So he quit his job and made the pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain in Hubei Province, renowned for its practice of Taoism and tai chi. Among snow-capped peaks shrouded in clouds, Li lived with local monks, embracing the Taoist philosophy of living in harmony with nature. 

After six months, he returned to the city.

Li didn't go back to an office job.

Today he runs a small convenience store out of his grandparents' vacant home in the hutongs � the narrow alleyways of old Beijing.

It's a working-class neighbourhood like the one he grew up in. "I wanted to rediscover my roots, so I went back to my starting point in the hutongs," he says. 

Li Chuang is among a growing number of young professionals in China rejecting the traditional narrative of success in favour of a minimalist lifestyle.

Instead of working hard, buying a house, getting married and having children, some young Chinese are opting out of the rat race and taking up low-paying jobs � or not working at all.

Lying flat

This simple act of resistance is commonly known as tangping, or "lying flat".

These days, Li often practices tai chi in the mornings and, when business is quiet in the evenings, he plays his guitar or guqin. 

At almost 190cm tall, he appears like a giant in his 15sqm shop, stacked with everything from chips to toilet paper. He admits he doesn't like labels. Instead, he prefers to describe himself as being "in a state of seeking".

"Maybe [others] need these labels to understand how I can live with no ambition.

The lying flat movement emerged in April after a blog post by factory worker Luo Huazhong entitled, Lying flat is justice. 

Burnt out from overworking, the 31-year-old quit and cycled more than 2,000km from Sichuan province to Tibet, working odd jobs along the way. 

It's spawned cat memes and tribute songs. The 'tangping' movement has become a social phenomenon in China this year.(

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"After working for so long, I just felt numb, like a machine," he told The New York Times in an interview. "And so I resigned."

His change of lifestyle became a source of inspiration for others. His post was celebrated as a manifesto against materialism. 

Lying flat resonated with students overwhelmed by the pressure to compete with millions of others each year for a place at a top university and then again for well-paid jobs once they graduate. 

It spoke to a generation of urban workers disenchanted by the notorious "996" work culture, where staff are expected to work from 9:00am to 9:00pm, six days a week. So it was little surprise that some young Chinese started turning their backs on work and consumption as a common goal. 

A national threat

For Chinese officials, it is the exact opposite of what the nation has asked of its people. 

The government wants a young generation of patriotic and productive workers. 

"For the majority, there's no differentiation of lowliness or nobleness of one's job," said President Xi Jinping, in a video clip that has circulated widely on social media in and outside of China. 

"As long as you're needed by society, as long as you're respected and earn a decent pay, that is a good job."

More than anything, China is counting on continuing economic development, particularly as it grapples with an ageing population. 

The Communist Party has labelled tangping "a threat to stability".

The state media calls it "shameful" and online discussion of the movement is censored. "We're living in a society that won't allow you to quit ... Maybe in other countries, people are allowed to dream of becoming a barber," Li Chuang ponders. 

Li admits most of his friends and family, including his father, don't share his enthusiasm for his new lifestyle. 

"There are people telling me, 'You should feel sorry for letting your parents down and wasting the resources of our country ... You got a master's degree with their support but you end up running a corner store?' " he says.

"It's like I should say sorry to the whole country."

Many of them dismiss his work choice as merely an attempt "to escape.""Some people ask me, 'Do you have a job now?' I say, 'Running the store is my job.' They're quite perplexed."

Li's mother, who helps out at the store, is the only one who does support him. 

"When he resigned, his father objected," she says.

"He asked me, 'How come you're OK with this?' I said, 'He's my child, I know him. I know my child. Life is long and it's not even close to the end. If he's not happy, quit.'"

A generational shift

For generations, public servants were guaranteed lifetime employment and a pension under the so-called "iron rice bowl".

Mao Zedong believed it was the duty of a communist state to provide everyone with a job. 

The government assigned citizens a job for life with guaranteed wages. 

Schooling, housing and healthcare were included, dispensed by a worker�s danwei or "work unit".

But when Deng Xiaoping began, in 1978, to transform China from a centrally planned economy to a more free-market economy, his supporters insisted that the iron rice bowl had to be smashed if China was to modernise.Successive leaders have continued the overhaul as part of China's modernisation drive. 

Instead, today's generation of workers are given employment contracts, tested for competency, and benefits such as free housing and childcare are not linked to one's job. 

"For my parents' generation, there weren't many choices," Li says. 

"They just went to work and didn't need to think about changing jobs because the salaries were all the same."

He believes their identity was "formed in the context of collectivism."

In contrast, Li says his generation is "more pluralistic because we face more choices and we live in a more fragmented time."

"The opportunities and the challenges we face are probably greater than before."

Therefore, Li surmises, the older generation's way of thinking "will inevitably conflict with ours." It's the great paradox many young Chinese now contend with. 

Like their parents, they�re expected to show loyalty to the state, but without the state benefits that their parents once enjoyed.

They face both the pressure to compete in a market economy and the pressure to conform in an authoritarian society.

According to Li, in today's China, happiness is no longer handed out by the government but is meant to be found in material success.

"Everyone is given their quota of 'happiness'," he says.

"If you get your quota, you have 'happiness'. But is this happiness the real happiness for you?"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-23/tang-ping-lying-flat-generation-rejecting-chinas-work-culture/100477716

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