Day: August 18, 2023

China to Stage Military Exercises Around Taiwan

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China’s military said it would stage “joint combat readiness” patrols around Taiwan on Saturday, sending a warning gesture to the island democracy soon after a leading candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election finished an overseas trip that Beijing had denounced. Vice President Lai Ching-te, the candidate, had flown to Paraguay — one of 13 states that keeps diplomatic relations with Taipei, and not Beijing — making stops in the United States on his way there and back. The Chinese government is trying to curtail the international activities of Taiwan, which it…

At Camp David, Leaders Criticize Beijing’s Moves in South China Sea

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Camp David, Maryland —  Leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea wrapped their Friday summit at the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David, cementing a newly established trilateral partnership with a pledge for a unified trilateral response during a regional crisis, focusing on threats from China and North Korea. “We’ve all committed to swiftly consult with each other in response to threats to any one of our countries from whatever source it occurs,” President Joe Biden said alongside South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio…

U.S. Seals Security Pact With Japan and South Korea as Threats Loom

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The new three-way security pact sealed by President Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday was forged with threats by China and North Korea in mind. But there was one other possible factor driving the diplomatic breakthrough: Donald J. Trump. While the former president’s name appeared nowhere in the “Camp David Principles” that the leaders issued at the presidential retreat, one of the subtexts was the possibility that he could return to power in next year’s election and disrupt ties with America’s two…

Escaped Taiwanese drug lord ran trafficking ops from Cambodia prison

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A Taiwanese drug lord freed from his 52-year jail sentence by masked gunmen while he was on a prison-granted dentist visit was conducting secret drug trafficking operations from Cambodia to Taiwan as recently as in 2020, despite being behind bars in Siem Reap, Radio Free Asia has learned.   Court documents from Taiwanese authorities uncovered by RFA Investigative reveal that Chen Hsin Han, a Taiwanese national arrested on drug charges in Cambodia in 2009, managed to smuggle nearly 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of heroin to an associate in Taiwan in 2020…

Popular comedian detained, beaten and fined for YouTube videos, relative says

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Relatives of a stand-up comedian said he was detained by police in Ho Chi Minh City, beaten and then fined for videos about social issues that he posted to his popular YouTube account six years ago. Police arrested Nguyen Phuc Gia Huy on Tuesday and later fined him 7.5 million Vietnamese dong (about US$315) for videos that authorities said carried untruthful content. The content of those videos wasn’t disclosed. He was also ordered to remove the false information from YouTube, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper. Huy, 41, is a…

South Korea, Japan and US vow ‘new era’

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The leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States will meet annually from now on and discuss all regional security issues on a threeway hotline before making decisions, President Joe Biden said after a high-profile trilateral summit at Camp David on Friday. Military exercises between the countries will also be organized each year, the U.S. president said, and the three countries would prioritize the “peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea.” Biden hosted South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the redoubt…

Prominent Uyghur activist learns about father’s death in Xinjiang months after demise

Chin@Strategy

A prominent U.S.-based Uyghur activist said he learned this week that his father died seven months ago in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, though the circumstances of his death remain unclear. Abdulhakim Idris, executive director of the Center of Uyghur Studies based in Falls Church, Virginia, and former inspector general of the World Uyghur Congress, found out on Wednesday that his father, Abdulkerim Zikrullah Idris, 81, died in January in the city of Hotan, known as Hetian in Chinese. Abdulhakim was informed of the news from a source who insisted on anonymity…

Camp David pact eases Japan-South Korea tensions

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Receive free US foreign policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US foreign policy news every morning. The leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday put decades of frequently acrimonious relations behind them, signing on to a trilateral pact with the US that will deepen military and intelligence co-operation between the three allies. The agreement, formally reached at President Joe Biden’s retreat at Camp David outside Washington, sets up annual summits between US, Korean and Japanese foreign and defence officials; establishes joint…

Camp David pact ends decades of Japan-South Korea tensions

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Receive free US foreign policy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest US foreign policy news every morning. The leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday put decades of frequently acrimonious relations behind them, signing on to a trilateral pact with the US that will deepen military and intelligence co-operation between the three allies. The agreement, formally reached at President Joe Biden’s retreat at Camp David outside Washington, sets up annual summits between US, Korean and Japanese foreign and defence officials; establishes joint…