Free Republic

For Japan, losing Taiwan to China could be a disaster as it would jeopardise key shipping lanes that supply nearly all of Japan’s oil and other materials it uses for manufacturing. Between China’s 20th Communist Party Congress, that began Sunday, and the next one in 2027, Japan will undertake its biggest arms buildup since World War Two in a race to deter Beijing from war in East Asia, according to Japanese government officials and security analysts. Japan identified China as its chief adversary in its 2019 defence white paper, worried that Beijing’s flouting of international norms, pressure on Taiwan and...

The Biden administration is giving so much military assistance to Ukraine to combat Russian forces that it's risking not having enough weapons to help defend Taiwan should China invade, according to experts and former top national security officials."Our weapons stockpiles are low, in large part because of the war in Ukraine, which means if there's another war, or if we need to provide weapons to Taiwan, those weapons aren't going to be there because these weapons are complicated to make — they're expensive," former National Security Council Chief of Staff Fred Fleitz told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday."My...

The dollar hit the symbolic level of 150 yen (S$1.43) for the first time since 1990 on Thursday as the greenback was supported by Treasury yields trading at multi-year highs, keeping markets on high alert for intervention from Japanese authorities. Moves among other major currencies were more muted with the euro at $0.9786 (S$1.36), struggling to regain ground it lost during a dollar surge the day before, while sterling extended its declines. The fragile yen briefly weakened past 150 per dollar in early European trading for the first time since August 1990. It was last trading a little below that...

China is losing its influence; it’s in decline. At the same time, however, China, ruled by a despotic regime, is responsible for 28.7 percent of global manufacturing output (more than 10 percentage points ahead of its No. 1 rival, the United States). This utter dependence on China for manufacturing must be stopped. As I write this, three countries are working to siphon customers away from China. Will their efforts prove to be successful?I speak from experience when I say the following: communist China is not a fun place to live in. Moreover, with its frequent power cuts and the Chinese...

The supply chain for electric-vehicle batteries is uncomfortably dependent on China—for now, at least Competing with a much better-established Chinese industry isn’t an obvious proposition for investors, even with subsidies thrown in. That leaves U.S. car makers tentatively leading even the upstream supply-chain push, in alliance with the Energy Department. The future of EVs is often assumed to depend on solving consumer problems such as slow charging infrastructure and range anxiety. Instead, they could be slowed down more by the conundrum of building the foundations of a battery industry.

Link only Bloomberg article that may explain why the chip embargo basically went into place overnight. It's very possible that Xi Jinping will move on Taiwan in the next two years. And that is presumably why Biden has given 3 warnings to China, and Xi is downplaying any new policy on Taiwan. The big game we've been waiting for in the Western Pacific? It's coming. Anyone invested in equities should prepare to assume the position. What position? BOHICA.

Some Chinese nationals still in Ukraine have signed up for evacuation from the country, with most registering for organized evacuations, while others are preparing to leave Ukraine on their own, the Global Times learned on Sunday, after the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Chinese citizens to leave Ukraine, citing the grave security situation. The move, following the large-scale evacuation in March that safely returned some 6,000 Chinese nationals in Ukraine back to their motherland, represents the Chinese government's greatest efforts to protect its citizens, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict further escalated, experts noted. As of press time on Sunday, 161 people had...

Japanese cabinet ministers on Friday (Oct 14) approved the scrapping of a law that stipulates women pregnant at the time of a divorce must wait 100 days before marrying again. The law, in place for more than a century, does not apply to men and was originally intended as a way to aid the identification of the father who is financially responsible for a newborn baby. Critics have campaigned for a withdrawal of the 1896 law - which had banned remarriage for six months until being revised in 2016 - calling it outdated and discriminatory. The change will also remove...

North Korea's military has indicated that it launched ballistic missiles in response to what it calls a military provocation by South Korea in a frontline area. State-run Korean Central News Agency issues a spokesperson's statement shortly after 2 a.m. on Friday. It says the South Korean military continued to engage in a firing exercise for 10 hours on Thursday, and that North Korea carried out a "strong" military action in response...

The yen floundered near a fresh 24-year low on Thursday, while sterling held onto overnight gains as investors skittishly await an impending deadline for the end of the Bank of England's emergency bond-buying programme. The yen hit a trough of 146.98 per dollar overnight - its lowest The yen floundered near a fresh 24-year low on Thursday, while sterling held onto overnight gains as investors skittishly await an impending deadline for the end of the Bank of England's emergency bond-buying programme. The yen hit a trough of 146.98 per dollar overnight - its lowest since August 1998 - and last...

Nissan announced on Tuesday that the company will sell all operations in Russia to an entity of the nation’s government. As warfare between Ukraine and Russia escalates ahead of the winter months, the Japanese automaker announced that NAMI, a Russian government body dedicated to automotive industry development, is slated to acquire the firm’s business in the nation. Nissan, which will lose ¥100 billion, or $686 million, as the company is sold for €1, has the option to repurchase its operations within the next six years. “On behalf of Nissan, I thank our Russian colleagues for their contribution to the business...

The latest Tweet by BNO News states, 'Japan emergency alert: "North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please evacuate to the inside of a building or go to the basement. Target area: Hokkaido"'

Russia said on Monday (Sep 26) it had detained a Japanese diplomat based in the eastern city of Vladivostok for carrying out espionage-related work and declared the official person non grata, news agencies reported. "A Japanese diplomat was detained red-handed while receiving classified information, in exchange for money, about Russia's cooperation with another country in the Asia-Pacific region," the FSB security service said in a statement, carried by Russian news agencies. The diplomat had also been soliciting information about "the impact of Western sanctions" on the eastern Primorsky region, the FSB said, according to news agencies.

Japan is demanding a formal apology from Russia after Federal Security Service (FSB) agents allegedly blindfolded and interrogated a Japanese diplomat, before giving him 48 hours to leave the country. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Vladivostok-based Japanese consul Motoki Tatsunori was detained and questioned by Russian agents on Monday for alleged espionage. “The consular officer was taken away in a state of immobility, blindfolded from start to finish, with his hands and head held down, and subjected to intimidating interrogation,” Hayashi said during a press conference Tuesday. Tatsunori was detained and declared “persona non grata” by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, according...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "sadly… perhaps the final nail in the coffin" for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, former top diplomat Bilahari Kausikan says in The Straits Times' latest Conversations on the Future. "The lesson… many countries have taken away from the Ukraine crisis is that you have to be able to defend yourself. "And if your likely threat is a nuclear power… I don't think you can deter nuclear power by conventional means; that's a stark fact," said the former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - currently chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National...

TOKYO -- The Japanese government and the Bank of Japan have intervened to buy the yen and sell dollars for the first time in about 24 years after the currency weakened on indications that the central bank would stick to its ultraloose monetary policy. The intervention on Thursday was confirmed by Masato Kanda, Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs. It followed a slide in the yen after BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda made bearish remarks that indicated he had no intention to raise rates any time soon. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki later said that the BOJ intervened to calm volatility...

Japan announced on Thursday (Sep 22) that it will lift tough COVID-19 restrictions on foreign tourists, reopening the borders after two and a half years. Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the pandemic had interrupted the free flow of people, goods and capital that had helped the nation flourish. "But from October 11, Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US, as well as resume visa-free travel and individual travel," said Kishida, who is in the city for the United Nations General Assembly.

TOKYO Japan is very proud of its trains, and in many ways rightfully so. The country has one of the cleanest, most reliable, and most convenient rail networks to be found anywhere on the planet. But it isn’t perfect, and the undeniably worst part of train travel in Japan is the possibility of encountering a chikan, or groper, onboard. Rail operators have tried various countermeasures to attempt to prevent gropings, but the actions of one East Japan Railway Co (JR East) worker have been drawing criticism after a video taken at Shinjuku Station in downtown Tokyo on Aug 30 recently...

Vladimir Putin has taken to comparing himself to some of his czarist predecessors, invoking their military triumphs. In June, he praised Peter the Great for “taking back and reinforcing” territory in the Baltics in the Great Northern War in the 18th century. But as Putin’s effort to conquer parts of Ukraine slogs into its sixth month, some historians feel he more closely resembles Nicholas II, whose 1904-1905 war against Japan was an unmitigated disaster. The parallels between the two conflicts are undeniable. Just as Nicholas underestimated his Japanese adversary, so did Putin, who was convinced that his invasion of Ukraine...

Last night Politico Europe published an interesting story about where Russia is starting to feel the pinch as it tries to keep its war machine going. Despite sanctions, Russia has managed to keep selling lots of oil and that has kept its economy from collapsing. But while it has lots of cash on hand it’s not so easy to import supplies of high tech chips that are needed for its weapons of war. In order to find those parts, Russia has put together a shopping list.Having fired off (or lost in combat) way more of their missile firepower than they...