tallish orchestra won the contest. last month's with this on the stephanie of mixing hip hop and traditional folk music it watching dw news coming up next, d w in asia with parish banner g. and we'll be back with the latest headlights at the top of the elop event with ah, what people have to say matters to us a that's why we listen to their stories.

sh reporter. every weekend on d. w. on the green. you feel worried about the planning me soon? i'm neil. host of the on the green fence podcast and to me it's clear we means to trade. join me for a deep dive into the green transformation for me, for you, for the plans with visited of the news, a shack coming up today. china strategic moves in the south pacific raised a lob among australia and its allies. china, $1.00 to $10.00 pacific island states to inc of wide ranging deal with bay jing it failed. so what other concerns with this deal and how did the pacific island name

themselves, viewers, and later in the program? thank folks real life fight club. the cult movie has inspired and underground fight scene in the ty capital the cops, a theme read just like some of the competitors for the events approving extremely popular. ah, i british manager, welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us. an attempt by china to secure a sweeping security and trade deal with 10 south pacific islands remains elusive. jay's foreign minister, one ye has was hoping to sign such a pact during a stop in fiji part of his diplomatic to out of the region. but one came away from a virtual meeting with his south pacific counterparts. without a deal, he urged them not to be too anxious about his country's aims in the region, and promised to clear the air. we hope to long john after the meeting,

china will release its own position paper on our positions, propositions, and co operation proposals with pacific island countries, giovanna, and going forward. we will continue to have ongoing, an in depth discussions and consultations to shape more consensus on cooperation, tricia, public junction. but the lead up of that commitment saw charm offensive to get the pacific nations on board one that set alarm bells ringing in canberra. but also, as you will see in our extra port in some pacific islands as well, a whistle stop charm offensive by china's foreign minister. wine ye, he spending 10 days island topping in the pacific. seeking to deepen beijing's regional clive's at the center of the tour, a proposed cooperation packed with 10 pacific island nations. china's calling is a common development vision. but

a draft of the plan shows that some visions go much further. beijing will become more involved in regional security training police officers and expanding it cyber security reach is, would also gain greater access to natural resources and sensitive marine mapping in return, beijing's dangling the terrace of a free trade deal along with access to china's lucrative marcus. it's also offering financial assistance including humanitarian unpaid debt, make relief to deal with drastically increased china's role in the politics, security, and economy of the south. pacific bass has countries like australia and the u. s. rattled because of their geographical proximity and long standing strategic interests in the region concerned. the u. s. state department has expressed alarm saying beijing might use to propose the court to exploit the islands and feel regional tensions of concerns echoed by australia. hold on ahead of monday's

meeting, micronesia president, david patello, pens, an 8 page leisure warning fellow, pacific island leaders that the agreement threatened to bring in new cold war era best and a world war. at worst, china's pushing off those fears for thought to the pacific island countries. china is not a new comer, but an old friend with a longstanding friendship. the rapid progress in the relationship between china and the pacific island countries does not come out of thin air, but as naturally progressed over time, china's adamant that the deal has no political strings attached both with not all pacific island leaders convinced if it's more diplomatic blitz as a had to come their fears. and you, i mean, off a more is rory becca. he's head of the national security college of the australian national university in cambra, rory a, china hasn't been able to sign off on a security and economic deal with the 10 pacific island states as it wanted to. why

do you think that is? well, this is a significant in china attempt to dominate the pacific, and i think china has overreach. so i think we're saying a convergence of several factors in the past few days. the, the over rich, the hubris, if you like, all china and foreign minister, while you seem to, to, to read many countries into a many dimensional agreement, security, economics, culture, development, fisheries, etc. and of course there was going to be obligation. so i think what's happening now is the nice business that china is bringing to the region and the cracks, the divisions, the beginning show. because the small countries cannot reach consensus on doing it with china. therefore they will put on the shelf. but the other piece of puzzle i

think, is the way that the new australian government has been showing real leadership and real engagement with pacific country. not telling them to refuse or ignore china, but to remind them that the choices that by making about the development i put a long and if they had been to read the fine because they need to. and in addition, when you are striving governments like the government as a much more progressive foreign policy is the last one and the pool killing pacific pacific. all countries what they need to hear from astray on climate change, which is obviously an issue for them. so it is an important way i'd like to get back to the the pacific island states, and that does appear to be somewhat an appetite for corporation. but paging doesn't mean we're talking. we have the smaller arraignment security arrangement with the solomon islands, a bilateral agreement with some more. so there is some sort of an appetite isn't

there for cooperation with beijing? oh, look, no question. i mean, these are countries with enormous development needs. it's understandable. the only country offering the lions or the infrastructure of the technology to help them to let gap, he's going to receive an audience. and so china is part of the solution for the pacific, but it's not the whole solution. and so what we're also saying is that the vision come to the surface within countries like solomon islands, for example, where part of the community wants close to ties to taiwan. part one plus the aging is worried about the impact of chinese power. and many in that community still want guy. so he's going to be a, a really multicolored tapestry. if you live all foreign to the city. the main concern i think from an a strategy interesting is that no one

country dominates and it does not use development as an excuse for a strategic footprint for security dominance. form australian prime minister scott morrison had referred to the pacific islands as australia as backyard did. australia dropped the ball with engagement in the region. well, to be fair on the previous government, it was trying to do more. you've had a policy called the pacific step up where it was increasing development assistance, increasing security assistance and so forth. but the political messaging was not effective or was not working. there was too much sense that a strategy was either thing, a little bit condescending toward small island countries, or that a strategy was looking at all of the problems through the prism of us china, strategic competition. so effect is more continuity than people realize that the

new government i think has got the right ahead, for example. but it's very fee that we will not use the word back yard in describing the specific estate, but the neighborhood region and in the family. so talk to us a bit about what we can expect from this new government in terms of its engagement with the pacific island states. well, more broadly pacific the broader window specific asia, the new striking government really has hit the ground running. we've had a big increase in strategy is national in national security capability and outlook over the past 5 years or so. so the new government inherits quite a hope, the national security business strategy. but it will now be much more engaged diplomatic, much more emphasis on listening on multilateralism on broadening the range of

countries with building ties. we've not only in the pacific but also southeast asia . the previous government rightly elevated the quote of india, japan and the united states as a priority, that's driving our policy and we will keep that the new government will apply that to the needs all the pacific and south east asia. and we're already saying, i think severely fruit from that out of the course, making week, well, for any long mess, you can increase in spending and helped to encourage greater court investment in this stretching. we leave it there for the timing, but thank you so much for joining us today. rodney metcalf from the australian national university. thank you so much. thank you. me now to the gritty, underground fight taking place in thailand's capital in bangkok. the bout attract

amateur fighter looking to let a few punches fly, and get bloodied in return. the st style brawls fall into a legal grey zone which organizers exploit to keep the police from cracking down. when the street lights flicker on, it's also time for flight co, thailand, nothing here is as glamorous as the glitzy tie boxing stadiums but these underground bouts in the port site neighbourhood of bangkok have their own magnetism. oh, it's quite different from traditional sites. it's fun, it's unique. fighting with containers surrounding us, it's just fun. it's exciting. my friend said, my niece and also like when i roll out, i feel good. the fight club is partly inspired by the cult brad pitt movie with the same name. no skills are required here. it's all about instinct. everyone

gets to go all out in a single 3 minute round. whatever style the use, it's become a local sensation. since its founding in 2016, he bought the levin miller beginning. we just wanted to fight and film the fighting, but once the for th got on the internet, people became interested. so we ended up creating this club than more and more people approached us. and it all snowballed from there. the gatherings of also gained the attention of the police. they say the match is violate the so called boxing act, which is punishable with a jail sentence. but the group has found a way to keep the fights going on alone. one of them, we're not under the loss of the boxing act, so that means we're not holding unsanctioned fights. ready to come out, holding boxing matches, or spots matches. we are holding an event under the association of fight club

thailand. and event with guidelines after the reverie explains where the amateurs allowed to hit their punches, start to connect. and as the co founder puts it, change violence into friendship. very painful friendships there. that's the end of this round of d, w. 's asia, at least for today as i've others more on our website and you can follow us on facebook and twitter as well. see you back here tomorrow. good bye. ah me. this is where the rainbow shines. the brightest, done home to queen people from around the world. none pass with trauma. history was written more than 100 years ago.

dive into queer culture. out and proud and excited. look back. arts 21. next r d w. what secrets lie behind these walls? discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites with d. w. world heritage. 360. get the app now. ah, pretty sort of knows that berlin is like the trans queer city. the term transgender didn't really come into existence until the middle of the 20th century. this building by west berlin really was a.