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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that Ireland’s policy on China and Taiwan has not changed, despite reports in Chinese state media following his meeting in Dublin with Chinese premier Li Qiang. Earlier, CGTN quoted Mr. Varadkar as saying that Ireland “will always abide by the one-China principle, and hopes that China will achieve peaceful reunification at an early date”. However, Mr. Varadkar said Ireland supported the One China “policy” on Taiwan, which is distinct from the One China “principle”. He said: “I reaffirmed our policy, which is the One China policy, that we recognize that Taiwan is part of China....

China was able to reverse-engineer much of the former Soviet aircraft carriers and improve its own related technologies -- despite previously having no experience with them. But if the armor of the Varyag is based on former Soviet standards, the sinking of the Moskva will only make Chinese leaders fret over its vulnerability to incoming advanced missiles. Since its commissioning in 2012, the Liaoning has been considered one of the Chinese navy's key assets. It often sails near Taiwan, including through the Taiwan Strait. But following the war in Ukraine, if Chinese President Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military...

During President Joe Biden’s online Summit for Democracy, the video feed of a Taiwanese delegate was cut off after showing a slide of a map depicting Taiwan as independent from China. However, the map was about democracy, not sovereignty. Two sources close to the issues told Reuters that Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang was cut off for about a minute after showing the map. Soon, Tang was back on, but this time, the feed was audio only, captioned: “Minister Audrey Tang Taiwan.” There was also a disclaimer that read: “Any opinions expressed by individuals on this panel are those of...

US President Donald Trump’s “Taiwan Travel Act” continues to draw ire from Chinese authorities. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Saturday the bill “severely violates” the “one China” principle and sends “very wrong signals to the ‘pro-independence’ separatist forces in Taiwan.” “China is strongly opposed to [the bill],” Lu said in a statement. “We urge the US side to correct its mistake, stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way,” he added. In a separate statement, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said the act “interferes in China’s internal...

President Donald Trump told China President Xi Jinping the U.S. would honor the “one China” policy months after Trump suggested he might use American policy on Taiwan as Trump “agreed at the request of President Xi,” to honor the policy, the White House said in a statement late Thursday. President @realDonaldTrump and President Xi Jinping of China had a lengthy telephone conversation tonight. The two leaders discussed... pic.twitter.com/5QvtKAjflU — Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) February 10, 2017

China said Monday that it had “serious concern” about President-elect Donald Trump’s most recent comments about Taiwan, and warned that any changes to how America deals with the self-governing island could damage diplomatic ties between Washington and Beijing. China’s comments came a day after Trump said in a television interview that he didn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy.” Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said that established policy is the “political foundation” of any diplomatic relationship between China and the U.S., and that any damage to it could render cooperation “out of the question.” …

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Tuesday with Taiwan’s opposition leader, underscoring Beijing’s message to the island’s independence-leaning administration that it won't have access to the mainland’s highest levels of power if it doesn’t accept that Taiwan is part of China. Xi’s meeting with Nationalist Party Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu at the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing comes months after China cut off communication and exchanges with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration. Diplomatically, China has also sought to isolate the island even more by having its representatives barred from international gatherings. […] Xi said that China “resolutely...

Avoiding The Danger Zones In The Year Ahead By Bill Bonner 12/30/11 Baltimore, Maryland – And here we are at the end of the week…and the end of the year. And we’re no surer of what is going on than we were at the beginning of it. The Dow rose 135 points yesterday. But gold kept going down. It is looking more and more like gold intends to make its big correction now… It’s been down for 6 days in a row. We’ve been waiting for it. We’ve been hoping for it. We’ve been counting on it. Is it here...

Kim Jong-un, who was declared Supreme Leader of North Korea yesterday, issued his first terrifying threat of war today. North Korea may "smash the stronghold of the puppet forces" in the South in retaliation for "hideous crimes" committed during the mourning period for Kim Jong-il. Threats of war from Kim Jong-un's father, though terrifying, were routine. His father threatened and attacked the South multiple times, but he never started a war or launched a nuclear offensive or used his artillery force to devastate Seoul. (Snip) "When the whole nation is overcome with grief over the great loss, only the South

Kathmandu: Thousands of Tibetan children and their families face stiff punishment at the hands of the Chinese government for enrolling into schools in India that are run by the Tibetan government in exile, headed by their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a rights body said. The Washington-headquartered International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has expressed its misgivings as the ultimatum issued by the Communist Party of China authorities to the Tibetan Party and government workers expired last week. In July, Communist Party authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region had issued a directive stating that Tibetan children must confess if they have...

The US and China completed a series of top-level talks on arms sales to Taiwan, with Washington refusing to give Beijing any assurances that the sales would be stopped or curtailed, a US official said on Thursday. “The US responded to PRC [People’s Republic of China] concerns over Taiwan by reiterating that it has followed a consistent approach,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeff Bader conducted the talks this week in Beijing. They are now in Tokyo meeting senior Japanese government officials. In Beijing they met Chinese...

The doomsday scenario we've feared since World War II has arrived. In response to the United States' latest arms sale to Taiwan, the Chinese military has suggested that China sell off some of the U.S. debt it owns to give the U.S. an economic punch of sorts. Reuters: Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defense spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at...

Raytheon, the world's largest missile maker, has won a $1.1 billion order from Taiwan for new Patriot missile systems. The order covers an initial ground-system hardware contract valued at $965.6 million and a $134 million contract for spares. The order, according to a statement by Raytheon, will include advances in technology, improved man-machine interface and reduced lifecycle costs. The deal has been in the making since October 2008 when the U.S. Defense Department proposed a $6.46 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the most advanced Patriot anti-missile system. Raytheon said the new Patriot fire units will be produced in...

Nearly 10 years after a RAND study predicted the US side easily beats China in an air war over the Taiwan Straits, the think-tank has published a new monograph online today that reverses its former opinion. Now, a People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bristling with a newly acquired arsenal -- including Su-27 and J-10 fighters, AA-12 and PL-12 missiles, and short-range ballistic missiles -- defeats the US side. Moreover, the PLAAF defeats the US side with or without F-22s, with or without access to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa and with or without the participation of two US carrier...

BEIJING (AFP) – China said it urged the United States in defence talks here to cancel an arms sale to Taiwan and stay away from waters where the two powers were recently involved in high-seas standoffs. China also urged all sides to exercise restraint over North Korea's recent nuclear sabre-rattling, Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian of the People's Liberation Army told reporters.

At a recent meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Taiwan Affairs Office Chairman Wang Yi (王毅), stated that the basis for mutual trust between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was “opposition to Taiwanese independence.”

The U.S. government has declined to make a long-awaited sale of block 52 F-16s to Taiwan for fear of upsetting China. The White House blocked the $4.9 billion deal for 66 advanced F-16s last year and there was little hope of it being revived this year. It's seems the United States doesn't want to give them to Taiwan, mainly because mainland China would oppose the sale. In 2006 the U.S. had already blocked the sale to Taiwan of 66 F-16C/D block52s after the island's parliament repeatedly failed to approve funds for an earlier arms package. Then in July 2008, the...

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The United States may post Marines at its unofficial embassy in Taiwan - a small but symbolically significant change in its delicate political relationship with the self-ruled island. A State Department advertisement in the English-language Taipei Times newspaper called for contractors to construct quarters for Marine security guards at a new U.S. compound in the capital, Taipei. Since the U.S. switched its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, there have been no marine guards at its Taipei facility - the American Institute in Taiwan - in keeping with its deliberately low political profile. It is customary...

Following its lopsided victory in the legislative elections of Jan. 12, Taiwan's Nationalist Party (or Kuomintang) has nailed down control of that vital island by electing its candidate as president of the Republic of China for a four-year term. This has been hailed in some American quarters as a victory for those who favor an accommodation between Taiwan and Beijing, but don't be deceived. The Kuomintang was Sun Yat-sen's party, which lost control of the mainland to the communists in 1949 but has maintained itself on the staunchly independent island of Taiwan ever since. Eight years ago, it lost control...

Ma has based his campaign on promises to reverse the pro-independence direction of outgoing President Chen Shui-bian and leverage China's white-hot economic boom to re-energize Taiwan's ailing high-tech economy. He has proposed a formal peace treaty with Beijing that would demilitarize the Taiwan Strait, 100-mile-wide waterway that separates the two heavily armed sides. But he has drawn the line at unification, promising it would not be discussed during his presidency. Economically, he wants to lower barriers to Taiwanese investment on the mainland — it already amounts to more than $100 billion — and begin direct air and maritime links between...