cool. japan will reportedly release into the sea treated radioactive water from a destroyed nuclear plant it follows years of debate over how to dispose of the liquid which was used to cool if the power station hit by a massive tsunami 2011 the government is expected to make a formal announcement this mom. says quick recap of the headlines for you now police in thailand have used a water cannon to break through a barricade set up by demonstrators in bangkok for a 3rd day in a row thousands of people in the 5 government ban on gatherings calling for the prime minister's resignation and reforms to the monic. in our other headlines trade negotiations between person in the european union appear to be on the brink of collapse after the u.k. prime minister want businesses to prepare for

a no deal breck's it to say they are willing to continue negotiating but they won't seek a deal at any cost u.k. prime minister's official spokesperson has told journalists the trade talks are over french police are investigating a fatal stabbing in a paris suburb the victim was a teacher who reportedly showed caricature of the prophet muhammad in a classroom the 18 year old attacker with shot dead by police who have opened a terrorism investigation french president emanuel has visited the scene. assisting one of our fellow citizens was murdered today because he was a teacher because he used teaching students freedom of expression freedom to believe or not to believe compact shit was attacked in cloud. is a victim of a characteristic islamic terrorist attack. mexico's president has promised to clean up the armed forces of the arrest in the united states of the country's

former defense minister on drug charges salvador led the army for 6 years and then president and rick opinion yet to he was arrested on drug charges in los angeles president under his money lopez obrador insists anyone else implication the scandal will be suspended and investigated. there's been a standoff outside a court in south africa in the town of semicolon where 2 black men are accused of murdering a white farmer aca the killing 2 weeks ago led to tension between white farmers and supporters of the opposition party economic freedom fighters they say they are defending democracy while the pharma say the government isn't dealing with the violence. casting a cost is next looking at the price of doing business in china that's it for myself and the team here in london but there will be more news from doha in about half an hour's time. hi i'm steve clemency question because these days it's hard to filter out the noise track of what's really important the bottom line tackles the big

issues this is shaping the united states its people its economy and the way it deals with the rest of the world the bottom line only on. hello i'm come on santa maria this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business in economics this week the price of doing business with china they call it wolf diplomacy negotiating with force sanctions tariffs and outright bans on foreign imports it's how china attempts to coerce other nations to its way of thinking and then there is the internal struggle with the directive to slash poverty beijing is forcing tibetan farm laborers into reeducation camps we'll find out how you can tell if the goods you buy are the result of forced chinese labor and we're looking at belarus as well where the president's clinging to power with the support of russia but at what cost will

moscow simply end up owning more of the better russian economy. you think trade walls on this one that comes to mind isn't there the u.s. and china president brash transactional battle that's yielded success and by equal measure all sorts of self harm. but the general push has been to curtail china's economic rise and that actually earned it some sympathy to start with but it's the way that beijing has pushed back that hasn't wolf warrior diplomacy punishment diplomacy coercive commercial diplomacy call it what you lied a number of nations have been on the receiving end of some finley veiled warnings and in some cases economic punishment that some with germany for example china banned the imports of german pork just a few days before president xi jinping was about to discuss trade and investment with angela merkel beijing says it was to protect its industry after germany

reported its 1st case of african swine fever but for many it was a bargaining chip really against europe's demand for better access to china's market before those talks in september china's foreign minister huang late he was touring european capitals hoping to counter the calls from the us secretary said my pump a 0 for on alliance of sorts of western countries against china but it didn't work when you want to check delegation that they would quote pay a heavy price for travelling to taiwan which china claims is its territory and well you can imagine how well that went down wang was also roundly criticized by top diplomats in other european countries he faced demands for china to respect human rights of protesters in hong kong and to explain why millions of people have been detained in these so-called reeducation camps or shin jiang and more in china's part of the world australia taken a hit to prime minister scott morrison called for an investigation into the origins and the handling of the corona virus that sent china relations to

a new low china immediately banned astray and beef imports it launched investigations into bali and wine and even warned its citizens not to travel to australia at this point you'd have to say the word diplomacy is starting to look entirely misplaced. and all of this hasn't gone unnoticed earlier this month the secretary sent my pompei and met his counterparts from australia india and japan so-called quad meeting seen as a front against an increasingly assertive china we're going to go to australia for our 1st guest him harcourt the j w neville fellow in economics at the university of new south wales in sydney also was the chief economist of the strain trade commission for over a decade worked for the reserve bank as well so you're perfectly qualified to take us through all of this and i i will focus more on australia in a moment but let's start broad brush here this and i'm using the word very loosely here diplomacy track that china is taking at the moment why such an assertive

track i mean it's it's the type of thing which you just feel can only sort of end in in trouble well i think you're right i think it's acute embarrassment. to the fact that they mishandled the current situation in. a little spread to iran and italy and all the rest of the world 'd and so i think there's a. great feeling of embarrassment that occurred and for the best form of defense is attack and so they've been 'd doing this was diplomacy attacking 'd everyone basically not wanting to be on the on the back thought because of the way that the layout code to spirit or move on to the rest of china to the rest 'd of the world ok so let's flip it around there and do bit of devil's advocacy here china was and i'm not going to say who started what here but as come under constant attack from particularly donald trump over the so-called trade war

why wouldn't fight back when some wise it's been doing most of the fighting the straight impressed things that china is picking australia that china has disputes with with with france with the czech republic with brazil with donald trump with the you with sarah. korea which it ended with it now the list goes on ecuador is not a country they don't have in a fight with so to say just in terms of trump or china support china versus the rest of the world in some ways. perhaps donald trump is doing a lot of the fighting for 'd the rest of us only i think people in japan and korea and brazil 'd the you didn't mind trump going pretty on when he became president given what's happened ok let's focus back in on china then what about the idea of debt diplomacy effective well maybe not now it's starting to unravel certainly the nation is close to a strong opinion some of the pacific nations some in africa realize that

a lot of these lines come with a string attached in terms of somebody in appear to look back on it and then of course. in some ways given quite low interest rates there are you know possibilities to borrow reasonably cheap clothes so you don't have to tie yourself to china this early or 'd anyone else and i think some other countries that weren't up to this and they're not doing the same. slightly for. lines that they were 'd looking for or when oh when the warning signs that's when the 10 tell me about australia's relationship with china then i. little anecdote here but worked and lived in australia in the early 2000 and i remember ben a great relationship that they had then it was building up to the beijing olympics all of those australian resources iron or it was all going to china it was great for both countries what happened. if you were in the great pain to have this moment

which it was all ready hunky dory look at. the 2 things one is. that this is a 2 schools of thought in a strike here 'd on polar opposites there's the security community really worry about defense and cybersecurity and those sorts of issues and this sort of pushing for a strange sort of verse 'd of life in china if you're on a play which would be very difficult even with very large trading partners like asean and ear and so on and then it is a very if you were picked up when you were struggling at the very pro china business lobby lived by hundreds of mining companies casinos those types of companies with strong interests with china and then they did the sort of the 2nd record 'd post blue corner and it did this time with a strong government whatever you do don't upset china so just concede on everything and. in the middle is you know

a group of commentators and that's the government so that says well they're very important economic partner and we're good friends of china's but of course friends can have disagreements send it one thing having a strong economic relationship but you really don't want to ference in your universities or your political system you don't need and all nations the world you need you have a plurality of relationships you try to relationship. cultural diplomacy and other types of parts that i know have to coincide what do you make of and i mention this just in passing before this so-called quad group of countries of which australia is one of them do you think that can be effective i mean there are other groups out there i think of like brics and the nonaligned movement of things and that which is sort of the the anti establishment want can that be effective or is that again just well let's get a gang together to fight against china look i think organizations like i pick and the courts and various other other women are so. the ships in the transpacific

partnership for instance was set up to get as 'd many body letter place together so you don't have a world of 2 or 3 big crowds so i think there's some rational rational thinking behind it in this case it's definitely to contain the china's influence particularly france wise particularly the south china sea particularly in the pacific and our thing for a long time india and japan fear of a little bit left out and they have leadership roles to play and i think probably when you were astride a week or the asia pacific would have been calling it the indo-pacific for quite some time because of the influence of internet asia and of course india to say that 'd you know the region is a lot more than what we think so so i think that's been part of the play i think the quite a bit mind is it is shared values as well as some defense ties it hasn't had much economic impact yet at the moment it's mainly shaped grannie's democratic. and

defense type issues discussed tim harper joining us from sydney pleasure talking to you thank you. but you did. so the china from a domestic level now president xi is racing to eradicate extreme rural poverty before the 100th anniversary of the communist party next year which sounds like a pretty noble act doesn't it if you look behind the curtain things are a bit different in particular in parts of the country where foreigners are barred from going to according to reuters the tibetan rural laborers are being forced off the land and into recently built military style training centers this will sound very familiar wanted especially to the millions of we goes who have been sent to so-called reeducation camps now into bed over half a 1000000 people or 15 percent of the population have been sent through the program in the 1st 7 months of this year many end up in low paid work including textile

manufacturing construction and agriculture now in similar mass transfers of the way good people these workers were discovered in the supply chains of $83.00 global brands according to a report released by the astray in strategic policy institute but despite the international criticism china continues to expand its indoctrination camps in the western region of jang now the trumpet ministration has sanctioned the makers of apparel cotton computers and hair products in the province which it accused of using slave labor that is on top of the sanctions on officials responsible for the policy of imprisoning up to 2000000 muslim minorities we're back to australia now for a 2nd guest in melbourne is james label he is an associate professor and head of department at the tribe university and an expert on ethnic policy and conflict in contemporary china great to have you with us james as i pointed out there not a lot of us will get any sort of insight into

a region like tibet but i believe you and your colleagues have been able to with satellite imagery what what did it show up for you. yeah well as you can probably appreciate it's very difficult now to travel. in tibet particularly if you're. concerned about human rights issues and you want to dig into it myself and other researchers don't feel safe in going there anymore chinese authorities of consistently surveilled harassed foreign journalists as and researchers and so we've tried to look at a range of open source methodologies that allow us to kind of peer into the region to try to piece together the puzzle what's happening there and certainly satellite imagery is a great tool it allowed us at a speed to track the rapid expansion of china's carful system for readers and other ethnic minorities that are viewed by the chinese state as untrustworthy and also allowed us to look at the destruction of important we here in islamic cultural

sites like mosques shrines and cemeteries so let's look at the i guess economic side of this and the fact that people are being put into and you could call it slave labor you can call it would if you want but it is hard work it is paid and it's all happening to be right in front of our eyes here most certainly i mean the chinese state in the eyes of the chinese state this is a poverty alleviation and it's about. uplifting the quality of the workforce cinching jiang it's about bringing moderna g. to the far reaches of china but this is all done a great cost individuals who are placed within these work transfer programs need to ensure the don't speak their native language but rather our profession in mandarin chinese they need to no longer practice their traditional cultural practices nor abide by islamic principles many of them had grown up with so there is

a process of social reengineering that is securing. through these labor transfer programs about disciplining it's about creating a at work force that is kind of conversant in honde defined norms and difficult to stop as well isn't it we were just speaking to a previous guest in sydney about china's style of diplomacy these days which is to attack basically it's not really going to probably listen to much criticism over this issue. it is difficult but i don't think we can give up i think it's really important. that we as a global community speak out this is you know one of the most egregious human rights abuses of modern time i do think the child is sensitive to international pressure we've seen some encouraging news the most recent sitting of the united nations where more countries have come forward to criticize china about its human rights abuses inching junge in tibet and we've seen

a kind of dropping off of some support of the chinese government position in some places and we've seen sanctions as well i mention those brought in by president trump on the on the industry. was in 2 minds about whether sanctions can really work if they are targeted yes maybe in this case what do you think. well i think you know sanctions have their place and i think they're important part of the pressure that we bring to bear i mean you know rhetoric alone is not enough we need to try to hit the chinese commis party in its you know financial back pocket. but the same time we need to make sure that this is not seen as something that's coming from a handful of liberal western democratic countries we need to build a global coalition of countries that are concerned about the issue and hopefully can try to change china's behavior i mean it's really important to remember that

you know china has a great liberal cosmopolitan tradition you know we go back to the tang dynasty to the ching dynasty you know i mean. china xi jinping has taken china down a road that i think is it is very dangerous but it's not the only road in it's you know it's possible that china could could reverse its course away from the politics in the economics i'm interested in the sort of well actually the end products textiles clothing computers all these sorts of things if someone is. so surely conscious about this and doesn't want to be buying these sorts of products which may have come through the system is there a way to to to find that out you know i think it's such an important issue to kind of raise consciousness and empower consumers to understand where their goods come from and under which condition they are manufactured. the you know when you

really need a kind of global movement to encourage people to understand where there might be human rights abuses within the global supply chain and to put pressure on you know major international companies that are making you know billions of if not you know multi-billions worth of profits off you know supplying the world with you know cheap consumer goods and i think of consumers or reveal you know aware of some of these abuses they might think twice and they might try to source more sustainable ethical sources james leopold from the tribe university in melbourne great talking to you thanks for joining us. pleasure nice to be with you finally this week bellaver send the economic angle to the country's disputed election and the mass protests and right now president alexander lukashenko 26 year dictatorship has won a temporary reprieve just how temporary that is depends a lot on whether russia will continue to bail him out this is what you need to know

about the bellerose economy right now according to reuters russia's support has been worth around 12 percent of the economy every year most of that supports come in the form of cheap oil which bill aris processes and then sells on to europe earning around $13000000000.00 a year russia plans to slash its subsidies gradually by 2024 but the better russian ruble will that's fallen 30 percent against the euro since the beginning of the year better rhesus currency reserves of tang to $4300000000.00 which means it has only enough money to import goods for about a month and a half last bailout that was in 2011 it remains bell ariss biggest creditor owning 38 percent of the country's debt and the cost of that bailout well bellerose had to give up control of its gas company and pipeline it also had to hand over $42.00 and a half percent of the maziar or oil refinery to the russian oil company rosneft so

kind of what you describe as we say a bit of a one sided relationship let's talk about it now with that you have kenya that's over who is in london a senior economist with oxford economics and it's lovely to have you with us bella reuss will need in all likelihood some more help is russia willing to come to the party there. are many good bellows is facing a likelihood of a severe balance feynman's crises you mentioned reserves and nearly nothing and the currency tanking it makes it more difficult for bellerose to. balance of payments that. versus being the main force for their refinance really both systems of that phrase and or subsidies so we need discerning again but for us or for health. that's nothing new what is new is that's now forcing from

a position of weakness particularly the presidential administration. and that means russia will be pressing for other for their political and economic integration in return for this. you made the point there about the currency reserves and the currency depreciation just take me through that a little bit more about how much of an economic threat that put end up being to then to raise the like me go on the balance thing when. the unfounded doubt for me about 3000000000 dollars this year for example with reserves just over the amount the country cannot afford to spend all of this or the reserve feeding that that it needs some liquidity are going to quickly see that it doesn't help or using a price we will see another 3 months or at least 3 months if we. still get the money that it doesn't have any real need for the further loan from russia basically

i mean russia is already even one and a half 1000000000. dollars loan and that helps her but that essentially helps those who think that through russia there will be other patients why the current account deficit and nobody else is lending at the moment about it's cut off from the private sector. capital markets it doesn't want money from the i.m.f. so. resolutely only for so russia could be the only source it would presumably want something in return at some point but as you said better russia. better recent sorry is in such a position of weakness right now what even just better is really have to offer to russia in return so basically what what's at stake is a store called union state integration with anything in state it has existed on paper since i think 9 but as russia became less capable

through providing generous subsidies to beller is. due to its only economic difficulties a pole. it became more costly for us to support the list and form. yep it was the deep integration in its muscle basis who are it can and will one government one parliament one currency. harmonization of town and trade legislation and even that russia is 80 times bigger as and belarus that means that we're be quite firm that was laying on russian firms and essentially losing parts of its parts of its sovereignty. which is why the question for has resisted this coercion and started flirting with the where. but

now. as a sense you know even the position of weakness in her will probably have to be more flexible these negotiations are pretty much behind closed doors at the moment and probably grievances on and we shall see only what's. what the result grouping. obviously we focus on president look at shanghai because he is still the president i'm interested in the relations which the better russian opposition the likes of sent on a to going to sky has with other parts of the world if it were to somehow be that that she was in charge of that there was a change in leadership there would that put bill a recent a better position open to more markets. i mean it's a very good question i'm in belarus in a longer term than me diversification i mean economy ringback. i mean if you are always dependent on subsidy from somebody that means. you're remaining subject to your vulnerable to pressure. from the bogner i

mean over the long term the need for haitian but if it were. to really be car for i mean. it could work in colonel carroll in bosnia for all the opposition in prisons come. next will face the same stories the blair who just went oh being withdrawn from those russian rhapsody won't be easy choices will they be raised to. new services over unseeingly sir. it's a question i mean they might feels more friendly relations with the west they might be more meaningful to suddenly say a lot from the i.m.f. or them from. russia and that might help to diversify receive them. fascinating contrasts on that so they're joining us from london today thank you for

your time thank you very much. and that is where we'll leave you this week but i want to know what you think and what you want to see on the show in the future as well tweet or d.m. me at kemal a.j. 8 if you're tweeting use the hashtag a j c d c if email is more your thing counting the cost of al-jazeera dot net trends and has more for you online as well about 0 dot com slash c.t. so you have to take you straight to our page which has all our previous episodes including this one for you to catch up on whenever you'd like but that is it for this edition of counting the cost i'm come on santa maria from the whole team thanks for joining us the news on al-jazeera is now. rewind return i would update on the best of al-jazeera as documentaries. just to. give. renditions inside libya's prison when the rebels came to tripoli they ransacked all sorts of buildings associated with gadhafi it

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