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If we learned anything from mainland China's slow-motion take over of Hong Kong, it should be that China has option other than rolling tanks in the streets. In Hong Kong it used legal measures and police action to stop protests and jail activists. Then it threatened everyone into silence and shut down independent news outlets, raiding their offices and jailing publishers. And the bottom line is that freedom from the mainland is now just a memory. Hong Kong's oldest pro-democracy party shut down this month because talk about democracy leads to prison these days.The Democratic Party, one of the leading...

Taiwan's first phase of tariff talks with the United States went "smoothly" and the government hopes to take this challenge as an opportunity to promote a new Taiwan-plus-the-United States layout for trade, President Lai Ching-te said Monday.Major semiconductor producer Taiwan had been due to be hit with a 32% tariff by U.S. President Donald Trump, until he put all tariffs ex-China on hold for talks to take place.Taiwan and the United States on Friday held their first direct talks about the tariffs.Speaking to representatives from university alumni associations at the presidential office in Taipei, Lai said Taiwan has overcome challenges...

The second possibility would involve massive Chinese missile strikes devastating Taiwan’s defenses and overloading its Patriot and other missile defense systems. Beijing’s army of “patriotic hackers” would crash the ROC power grids and shut down the internet and phone networks. Simultaneously, 100,000 PLA troops would hit the island’s beaches. Given the 12-hour time difference with Washington, “before the US wakes up.” Beijing’s objective would be to “seize [the capitol] Taipei in days and present the world with a done deal.”

China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels on Tuesday conducted law-enforcement patrols in waters around Taiwan island in accordance with the one-China principle, amid the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command's joint exercises around the island.

The United States must act as if the Chinese regime’s ambition to annex Taiwan by 2027 is a “realistic potential,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said late last week.It follows a recent remark by the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, at an annual defense conference that Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s goal to invade Taiwan in 2027 has driven the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) investment “in land, sea, and air based nuclear delivery platforms, and infrastructure necessary to support a major buildup of their nuclear forces.”Meanwhile, rumors of escalated purges within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the...

The United States will ensure "robust, ready and credible deterrence" across the Taiwan Strait, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday, calling China "aggressive and coercive".Hegseth also stopped short of publicly calling on Tokyo to hike military spending, saying in Japan he trusted the close US ally to "make the correct determination of what capabilities are needed"."America is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait," Hegseth said, using Washington's term for the Asia-Pacific region.Beijing has stepped up military pressure in recent years around Taiwan, including near-daily air incursions, and has not...

Taiwanese troops will simulate possible scenarios for a Chinese invasion in 2027 during the island's annual war games, the defence ministry said Wednesday, as Beijing maintains military pressure on Taipei.

Links to video: https://podcast.hillsdale.edu/erik-prince-the-future-of-dynamic-warfare/ Or https://youtu.be/WPMgzm_9K50?si=sAiO_dDDrcHs847h

Even as the Trump administration is trying to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine (and saying some things in the process that aren't remotely fair), the administration also seems to be hinting it is changing the US's long-held position on Taiwan. The change to a State Department fact sheet was small but significant.The fact sheet, produced by the department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the U.S. opposes "any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful...

Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting Alibaba founder Jack Ma in a Beijing meeting on Feb 17.PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM CCTV BEIJING - As Chinese head honchos gathered for a meeting at the Great Hall of the People stood up to applaud the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a man clad in a black Mao suit looked especially cheerful. Mr Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba, had every reason to smile. His very appearance at this rare meeting on Feb 17 between Chinese leaders and the heads of China’s biggest technology firms signals a rehabilitation of sorts for him, and...

Statements by Adm Paparo, head of the of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command - warns about Beijing’s plans. "Two months ago Beijing practiced sealing off the First Island Chain, which runs from Japan south to Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia. The goal is to cut off Western support for Taiwan in a blockade or invasion. A military exercise in October 2024 was practice for a blockade. " "Adm. Paparo said this week that China’s “aggressive maneuvers around Taiwan right now are not exercises, as they call them. They are rehearsals” for “the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.” "Taiwan has to...

Taiwan is investigating a Chinese-owned ship suspected of severing an undersea fiber-optic cable north of the island. While the incident caused minimal disruption to internet services, analysts say it reflects the vulnerability of Taiwan and its undersea infrastructure in the event of a Chinese military attack or blockade. “It’s a vulnerability shared by a lot of countries in a globalized world,” said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a former Pentagon official. “The real challenge for Taiwan is how do they increase their resilience now [that] there is growing awareness...

A full half of the jobs created by the first TSMC Arizona chip plant have been filled by workers from Taiwan, despite the company receiving up to $11.6B worth of grants intended in large part to generate US jobs. TSMC’s announcement that it was building a chip fabrication plant in Arizona was hailed as a major success for the US CHIPS Act – intended to free the US from dependence on China for advanced chip supplies, and to generate jobs for US workers. Apple proudly announced that it would be buying American-made chips for some of its devices. The gloss...

United States President Joe Biden on Friday (Dec 20) approved US$571.3 million in defence assistance for Taiwan, the White House said, as the Democrat prepares to leave office ahead of the January inauguration of Donald Trump. The United States does not officially recognise Taiwan diplomatically, but it is the self-ruled island's strategic ally and largest supplier of weapons. China, which has ramped up political and military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, has repeatedly called for Washington to cease sending arms and assistance to the island, which it claims as part of its territory. Taiwanese officials said China last week...

It's another two months before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, but China is already setting boundaries between the two countries. On Saturday, China's leader, Xi Jinping, outlined his "four red lines" in US-China ties at a meeting with US President Joe Biden. The four hot-button issues are Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China's path and system, and the country's rights to development. "They must not be challenged," Xi said, according to a statement published after the two leaders met on the sidelines of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Lima, Peru. "These are the most important guardrails and...

Regardless of the merits or demerits of the Biden administration’s policies on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the wider Middle East, it has become clear that the United States has been using and giving away its missiles faster than it can produce them. It is also clear that from the perspective of missile inventories and production, the United States is far from prepared to engage confidently in a sustained direct conflict with a peer competitor like China. This is demonstrated by the fact that U.S. missile and artillery shell reserves are currently inadequate to provide Ukraine with what...

Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022. At one point, Putin asked him to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Big @WSJ scoop

China launches "military drills," sending planes and ships to encircle Taiwan — AFP

Japan said its warplanes used flares to warn a Russian reconnaissance aircraft to leave northern Japanese airspace on Monday. Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters that the Russian Il-38 plane breached Japan's airspace above Rebun Island, just off the coast of the country's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, for up to a minute in three instances, during its five-hour flight in the area. It came a day after a joint fleet of Chinese and Russian warships sailed around Japanese northern coasts. Kihara said the airspace violation could be related to a joint military exercise that Russia and China announced...

TAIPEI — Taiwanese pager manufacturer Gold Apollo on Wednesday said that it did not make the devices used by the militant group Hezbollah that exploded in Lebanon the previous day, killing at least 12 people and injuring as many as 2,800 others. Experts said that Israel probably intercepted electronic pagers, used by Hezbollah because they were considered safer than cellphones, before they were delivered to Lebanon and rigged them with explosives. Hezbollah blamed Israel and threatened to retaliate. The Israel Defense Forces, which does not typically announce operations abroad, declined to comment on whether it was responsible. Two photos published...