Free Republic

Multiple senior members of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration and the head of his People Power Party (PPP) tendered their resignations on Thursday after vote counts confirmed that the left-wing Democratic Party decisively took over the National Assembly in Wednesday’s midterm election. The Democrats overcame a chaotic campaign season in which leader Lee Jae-myung survived a would-be assassin stabbing him in the neck. The day he was released from the hospital, three members of his party defected, protesting that Lee was running an authoritarian and corrupt “regime” within the party. Lee was in court on Tuesday for a hearing addressing...

Japan's Nikkei share average rallied on Friday to the highest since August 1990, the country's so-called "bubble" era, driven by a confluence of positive factors from strong earnings to optimism over a U.S. debt ceiling deal. The benchmark index jumped as high as 30,924.57 shortly after the open, on course for a seventh straight winning session, after smashing through the psychological 30,000 level on Wednesday for the first time in 20 months. The broader Topix, which had reached the post-bubble milestone on Tuesday, extended its climb to as high as 2,171.37.

North and South Korea exchanged warning shots off the west coast on Monday, accusing each other of breaching their maritime borders amid heightened military tension. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it broadcast warnings and fired warning shots to see off a North Korean merchant vessel that crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea boundary, at around 3:40 a.m. (1840 GMT Sunday). The latest exchange of fire came amid simmering tensions, with the North carrying out weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year. In recent weeks, North Korea launched short-range ballistic missiles and hundreds...

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...

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...

A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was apparently beaten inside the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester on Sunday, according to footage circulating on social media. Video footage appeared to show a man being assaulted as police officers tried to break up the chaotic scenes on Sunday afternoon. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, told The Telegraph that the Chinese embassy must issue a "full apology" over the incident and said the individuals involved should be expelled from the UK.

The United States has a history of putting rivals on the world stage in a corner economically, obligating them to make the first moves to war.One of the most famous examples of this strategy came on July 26, 1941.On that date, President Franklin Roosevelt introduced sweeping economic sanctions and asset seizures against Japan.Advertisement - story continues belowAs a result of those sanctions, “Japan lost access to three-fourths of its overseas trade and 88 percent of its imported oil,” according to History.Needing oil to maintain its military might, Japan had little choice but to declare war on the West and mobilize...

Do Kwon is the founder of Terraform Labs, the company was behind the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and Luna...South Korean authorities have sought his arrest and claim that Interpol has issued a "Red Notice," which is effectively a global arrest warrant...Kwon's Twitter location says he is in Singapore. But earlier this month, the Singapore Police Force said that Kwon was not in the city-state.

According to The Financial Times, US senator Sen. Marco Rubio said that Apple is “playing with fire” with its plans to use chips from a controversial Chinese government-associated company. A report from a South Korean publisher revealed Apple’s plans to collaborate with Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) for the new lineup of iPhones. “If [Apple] moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government,” Rubio told the Financial Times. Another senator, Rep. McCaul, shared that YMTC has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist party and military. “Apple will effectively be transferring knowledge...

It is unlikely Pelosi would back down now, although if she did, the US would need to take measures to not look weak, an Asia expert said A US news broadcaster on Thursday cited sources as saying that US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi departed for Asia yesterday, with a “tentative” itinerary for Taiwan. The trip’s official itinerary comprises Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, NBC News said. The report also cited sources as saying that Pelosi’s Taiwan itinerary was only listed as “tentative,” and whether she would visit Taiwan is not clear. The report said that Pelosi has...

The two North Korean fishermen were captured near the eastern sea border after their boat drifted into South Korean waters. They confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members and expressed a desire to defect, the South Korean government said at the time. The Moon administration said then that the men’s intentions to defect were insincere given their murder confessions—and deported them five days after taking them into custody. North Korean defectors, upon arriving in South Korea, are typically held for up to a month for a period of investigation and debriefing with Seoul’s intelligence officials. Human rights groups said the...

STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a 300-mm semiconductor manufacturing facility that will help develop the fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology ecosystem. The new facility will represent a multi-billion–euro investment and is expected to create about 1,000 jobs. The jointly operated fab will support GlobalFoundries’ 22FDX FD-SOI process technology and STMicroelectronics’ technology roadmap down to 18 nm for automotive, industrial, IoT, and communications infrastructure applications, companies said. The facility, which will be adjacent to STMicroelectronics’ existing 300-mm manufacturing site in Crolles, France, is set to reach full capacity by 2026, with up to...

Yoon Suk-yeol wanted to say goodbye to Joe Biden, but the American president passed by him as if he were not there. Good to know that all of Seoul got to see what we all here in the great USA witness daily.

They have shown up whenever women rallied against sexual violence and gender biases in South Korea. Dozens of young men, mostly dressed in black, taunted the protesters, squealing and chanting, “Thud! Thud!” to imitate the noise they said the “ugly feminist pigs” made when they walked.“Out with man haters!” they shouted. “Feminism is a mental illness!”On the streets, such rallies would be easy to dismiss as the extreme rhetoric of a fringe group. But the anti-feminist sentiments are being amplified online, finding a vast audience that is increasingly imposing its agenda on South Korean society and politics.These male activists have...

Teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg sent a letter revealed on Tuesday to anti-communist Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong, a political prisoner under the Chinese regime, in which she expressed “love, support, and strength.” Pro-democracy activist Lee Dae-seon of South Korea shared the letter with Vice, which published it on Tuesday. In addition to wishing Wong a “Merry Christmas,” Thunberg expressed support for his cause, called him a “big hero,” and asserted, “you are never alone.”

Engineers from South Korea have invented a cement-based composite that can be used in concrete to make structures that generate and store electricity through exposure to external mechanical energy sources like footsteps, wind, rain and waves. By turning structures into power sources, the cement will crack the problem of the built environment consuming 40% of the world’s energy, they believe. Building users need not worry about getting electrocuted. Tests showed that a 1% volume of conductive carbon fibres in a cement mixture was enough to give the cement the desired electrical properties without compromising structural performance, and the current generated...

U.S. taps 50 million barrels of oil from reserves in an attempt to tamper spiking costs at the gas pump.. resident Biden’s move to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is expected to supply Chinese and Indian oil needs as gas demands have led to global shortages.. The White House said the Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of oil held in U.S. reserves — 18 million of which have already been congressionally approved for sale. China and India have been actively purchasing U.S. sour crude oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico ... U.S.-produced sour crude oil...