Fiji Permits A Chinese Spyship To Dock Beside Australia's Largest Warship

Photo: The HMAS Adelaide is expected to be carefully scrutinised by its temporary neighbour. (File Photo: CPL Kyle Genner)

ABC News Online: Chinese spy ship disguised as fishing boat to dock next to HMAS Adelaide in Fiji

It will not look like much of a match — or a showdown for that matter — but when Australia's largest warship HMAS Adelaide arrives at the Fijian port of Suva today, it will have an interesting neighbour.

The Royal Australian Navy, tipped off by Fijian officials, is expecting a Chinese "fishing vessel" to also dock, and nestle alongside the new Canberra-class landing helicopter dock.

However this Chinese fishing boat is tasked with pursuing a very different catch.

Beneath its bow is believed to be a whole gamut of surveillance equipment — it is also a spy ship intent on marine mischief, camouflaged to look like its more interested in tuna, marlin and dogfish.

Australia's Navy, like every navy around the world, is well-versed in these sorts of nautical games.

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WNU Editor:  Is this all a coincidence .... hmmmm .... I doubt it.

Fiji's Military Government To End Martial Law

Fiji Military Government to Lift Emergency Laws -- Bloomberg

Fiji’s military-led government announced it will lift emergency regulations in place since 2009, amid international pressure on authorities to restore democracy in the Pacific island nation.

The Public Emergency Regulations will end on Jan. 7 and public consultations on a new constitution will begin in February, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, the nation’s prime minister, said in a New Year’s address.

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More News On Fiji's Military Government Ending The Emergency Laws

Fiji's Bainimarama to end martial law -- The Australian/AFP
Fiji announces end to martial law -- Stuff.co.nz
Fiji military government to end martial law -- AFP
Fiji to lift emergency laws: military ruler -- Reuters
Fiji Military To End Three-Year-Old Emergency Regulations -- M&C
Fiji announces end to emergency laws -- ABC News (Australia)
Fiji regime announces end to emergency laws, censorship -- Pacific Scoop

Fiji's Slow Slide To Dictatorship

Fijian Leaders in Defiant Mood -- Wall Street Journal

SUVA, Fiji -- Military-ruled Fiji remained defiant Saturday after its historic suspension from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum, rejecting the "punitive action" for a delayed election and warning it won't be deterred from its chosen path even by "adversity."

The coup-plagued nation was suspended from the regional bloc Saturday for what the forum called its rejection of democracy, freedom and human rights.

The suspension, the first in the forum's 37-year history, bars Fiji's leader, ministers and officials from taking part in any meetings or events, and cuts Fiji out of development funding until a democratic government is restored.

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More News On Fiji

Fiji suspended from Pacific Islands Forum -- China View
Fiji leader defies democracy call -- BBC
Pacific Forum formally suspends Fiji -- TVNZ
Sanctions against Fiji may sour sugar aid -- The Australian
Fiji, Facing Suspension From Pacific Forum, Rejects Elections -- Bloomberg
Defiant Fiji delays polls till 2014 -- Al Jazeera

My Comment: So much for going there on my holidays.

Fiji Virtually A Military Dictatorship: Rudd

Photo: In this file photo from Dec. 14, 2006, shown is Fiji's military commander Frank Bainimarama as he leaves the officers' mess at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in the capitol Suva. Fiji's president assumed control Friday April 10, 2009, and fired the judges who a day earlier had declared the military government illegal, deepening the troubled South Pacific country's political turmoil. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

From ABC News Australia:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has condemned Commodore Frank Bainimarama's reappointment as Fiji's Prime Minister, saying the country is now "virtually a military dictatorship".

Commodore Frank Bainimarama was sworn in again as Prime Minister in Fiji, after the country's President abolished the constitution and sacked the country's judiciary over a court ruling which found the 2006 military coup was illegal.

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My Comment: So much for paradise.