The US defence chief touted a message of peace, communication and “flexible realism” with China in a speech over the weekend, foreshadowing an American national defence strategy that is expected to be released soon. In his keynote address at the annual Reagan National Defence Forum on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington was…
Beijing has dismissed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s latest remarks on Taiwan as “prevarication”, warning that it “absolutely does not accept” her continued refusal to retract comments made in early November. On Wednesday, Takaichi appeared to attempt to dial down weeks of tensions when she told a parliamentary questioning session that Tokyo’s “fundamental position regarding…
Politburo member Wang Yi has become the most senior Chinese official to wade into the war of words over the new Japanese prime minister’s comments on the Taiwan Strait, saying her remarks “crossed a red line”. Wang, who is China’s foreign minister, said China must “resolutely respond” to the comments to safeguard the country’s sovereignty…
Japan’s export of lethal weapons sent an “extremely dangerous signal” indicating expanded military capabilities, Chinese observers and media said on Thursday as relations between the two countries continued to nosedive. The assessment followed Japanese media reports on Wednesday that Japan had exported domestically produced Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors to the United States. The US would…
A man from southern China who donated 140 yuan (US$20) as a child to help build an aircraft carrier has seen his dream of the country becoming a stronger nation come true. To top his wish, in November, the China State Shipbuilding Corporation invited him to visit the carrier fleet and gave him a commemorative…
China’s next-generation “drone-carrier” amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, completed its first sea trials on Sunday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said. The three-day trial marks a major step forward for the People’s Liberation Army to take delivery of its first Type 076 amphibious assault carrier, seen as a key asset for China’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)…
When Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump met in Busan, South Korea, on October 30, they spent nearly two hours discussing rare earths, fentanyl and trade. Taiwan, the one issue most likely to bring the world’s two largest powers into direct conflict, never came up. That silence was the message. It revealed…
“The assertions and innuendos in the article are completely false,” an Alibaba representative said. “We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify.” The Alibaba representative called the article a “malicious PR operation” that appears to “undermine President Trump’s recent trade deal with China”. Hangzhou-based Alibaba owns the…
Even for the anti-graft era of President Xi Jinping, the wave of investigations into alleged corruption in the Chinese military over the past three years has been exceptional. They are accused of having “violated party discipline and allegedly committed serious crimes related to their duties” – both euphemisms for corruption. “The amounts involved are particularly…
China now has the largest naval fleet in the world, and its growing numbers of nuclear-powered submarines are an integral part of its efforts to project power beyond its coastal waters. But the view from Beijing is growing more complex as a handful of US allies in the Pacific also ramp up deployment of nuclear-powered…