🇨🇳🇺🇸 China military says it 'drove away' US destroyer in South China Sea

China's military closely monitored and "drove away" USS Halsey that entered the territorial waters of Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 10, the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army said in a statement on Friday.

The US move "seriously infringed on China's sovereignty and security," the military said.

The US Navy said in a statement the destroyer asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands "consistent with international law." Recently USS Halsey has also conducted a transit through the Taiwan Strait.

#China #USA

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 New Biden tariffs on China's EVs, solar, medical supplies

US President Joe Biden is set to announce new China tariffs as soon as next week targeting strategic sectors, including a major hike in levies on electric vehicles (EVs).

The full announcement, expected Tuesday, will maintain existing tariffs on many Chinese goods set by former President Donald Trump.

But it will also add new tariffs to semiconductors and solar equipment, as well as hiking EV tariffs. Chinese-made medical supplies like syringes and personal protective equipment also face additional tariffs.

Tariffs on Chinese EVs will roughly quadruple under the new Biden plan, the Wall Street Journal reported. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown wants the Biden administration to ban Chinese EVs outright, over concerns they pose risks to Americans' personal data.

#USA #China

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🇰🇷🇨🇳 South Korea's foreign minister to visit China next week

South Korea's foreign minister Cho Tae-yul will visit China between Monday and Tuesday next week at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Friday.

It will be Cho's first trip to Beijing since taking up his post and marks the first visit by a South Korean foreign minister in more than six years.

The two will discuss issues ranging from bilateral relations to a trilateral meeting with Japan and the situation on the Korean peninsula, the ministry said in a statement.

#SouthKorea #China

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🇹🇼🇨🇳 Taiwan’s concerns grow and options shrink as Beijing patrols Kinmen waters

The increased presence of mainland Chinese coastguard ships patrolling the waters around Taiwan-controlled Kinmen has left Taipei with a dilemma regarding the most appropriate steps to assert its claim.

Under Taiwan’s rules of engagement and “first strike” policy, relevant authorities are authorized to target and, in serious cases, open fire on vessels persistently violating warnings by remaining within the waters of Kinmen.

However, analysts caution that the island’s authorities have limited options in enforcing these rules, as tougher actions could escalate into unintended cross-strait conflict, a scenario even the United States seeks to avoid.

#Taiwan #China

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🇺🇸🇨🇳🇹🇼 Bill would create US fund for nations facing Beijing ‘coercion’ on Taiwan

A bipartisan bill introduced in the US Congress on Friday would direct US assistance to countries that face “coercion or pressure” from China for trying to deepen ties with Taiwan. The legislation would authorize US$120 million over three years for a “Taiwan Allies Fund”.

According to the bill’s text, the US seeks to encourage countries to strengthen bonds with Taiwan and to aid those that “lack the economic or political capability to effectively respond” to retaliation from China.

The new fund would form part of a broader “Countering PRC Influence Fund”, and qualifying countries would be eligible to receive up to US$5 million a year.

#USA #China #Taiwan

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🇵🇭🇨🇳 Philippines sends ships to disputed atoll where China building 'artificial island'

The Philippines said it has deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused China of building "an artificial island" in an escalating maritime row.

The coast guard sent a ship "to monitor the supposed illegal activities of China, creating 'an artificial island'," the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a statement, adding two other vessels were in rotational deployment in the area.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela told a forum there had been "small-scale reclamation" of the Sabina Shoal, which Manila calls Escoda, and that China was "the most probable actor".

#ThePhilippines #China

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🇮🇩 11 killed after bus carrying students loses control, crashes in Indonesia

A bus slammed into cars and motorbikes after its brakes apparently malfunctioned in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 11 people, mostly students, and injuring dozens of others, officials said on Sunday.

The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta, the capital, late on Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, said West Java police spokesman Jules Abraham Abast.

It sped out of control on a downhill road and crossed lanes, hitting several cars and motorbikes before it crashed into an electricity pole, he said.

#Indonesia

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🇯🇵🇨🇳 Japan probing video of MSDF ship possibly taken by unauthorized drone

The Japanese Defense Ministry is examining a video that purports to show a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel in port, suspecting it may have been taken by an unauthorized drone.

The video, which was posted on a Chinese social media platform, stirred controversy earlier this year as it appears to provide a clear shot from above of the deck of the helicopter carrier Izumo.

According to the sources, the ensuing analysis led the ministry to believe the video was possibly taken from a drone that flew without permission above the vessel while it was anchored at an MSDF base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. Unauthorized drone flights are prohibited there.

#Japan #China

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🇰🇷🇰🇵 South Korea stages defense drills for western border islands

South Korea's military has staged joint defense drills for western border islands to bolster readiness against North Korean threats, the Marine Corps said Friday.

The three-day exercise began Wednesday on the border islands in the Yellow Sea, including Baengnyeong Island, joined by troops from the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps. The Marine Corps said the annual joint drills are "defensive" in nature to enhance the military's joint capabilities.

Tensions near the front-line islands escalated after North Korea in January fired hundreds of artillery shells from its west coast into the maritime buffer zone near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

#SouthKorea #NorthKorea

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🇰🇷 Seoul turns to foreign doctors as medical strike drags on

South Korea will allow foreign doctors to work in its hospitals after a rigorous vetting process, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said, as a months-long strike by junior medics shows no sign of resolution.

But the scheme will not take effect any time soon, following strong defiance from Korean doctors, the Korea Herald reported.

The media outlet reported Han as saying that there are no immediate plans to bring in foreign licensed holders to fill the current shortage, and that sufficient safety measures would be put in place.

#SouthKorea

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🇵🇭🇨🇳 Philippine coast will block China reclamation at disputed shoal, official says

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is committed to sustaining a presence in a disputed area of the South China Sea to ensure China does not carry out reclamation activities at the Sabina Shoal, its spokesperson said.

PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela told a press conference on Monday the Coast Guard had to make sure it was able to prevent "China from carrying out a successful reclamation in Sabina Shoal."

Located within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, the shoal is the rendezvous point for vessels carrying out resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent maritime run-ins.

#ThePhilippines #China

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🇨🇳🇺🇸 China says it firmly opposes US export control tools

China firmly opposes the abuse of export control tools such as the US entity list, a foreign ministry spokesperson said, after the US added 37 Chinese firms to a trade restriction list over national security concerns.

China and Russia have the right to carry out normal economic and trade cooperation, and such cooperation should not be disturbed, spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference.

He said the United States continues to politicize economic and trade issues and further increase tariffs, abusing the so-called 301 tariff review process, "which is adding insult to injury."

#China #USA

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🔎🇰🇷🇺🇸 Through the Lens: South Korea’s view on Trump

Former President Trump stated in a recent interview with Time Magazine that South Korea should shoulder more defense costs and hinted at the possibility of withdrawing US troops if South Korea does not pay more.

▪️While Trump claims that South Korea does not treat the United States properly, most Koreans trust the United States. In a survey, 91.6% of respondents answered that the alliance is important. This trust stem not only from the military and economic power of the United States but also because the United States represents the values of democracy.

Just as a marriage is built on trust and respect for each other, alliances also need mutual respect to be maintained and developed. Trump’s idea of alliances as solely based on economic cost-benefit calculation will undermine the trust and respect of allied countries towards the United States.

🔻If the perception that the United States is a large and selfish country grows, its reputation will be shaken, and it will be isolated in the international community.

Since no amount of money can replace human lives, if Trump had been the US president at the time of Korean War, what would have happened? South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world with little economic interests to the United States. He would have done nothing. Just watching.

▪️Trump has often voiced complaints about allies not contributing ‘fairly.’ The word ‘mutual’ in the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty does not imply unilateral protection by the United States for South Korea. Should the security of the United States be threatened, South Korea is also committed to defending the United States, exemplifying the essence of ‘mutual’ defense.

Even when there is dissatisfaction regarding defense burden-sharing, behaving recklessly towards allies, as Trump did, is not right. Each nation is considered to have equal standing. Trump, neglecting this principle, persists in advocating his stance under the assumption of US superiority.
The self-centered mindset of Trump risks destabilizing alliances and jeopardizing the liberal international order that the United States has established and safeguarded.

Full article

Choi Kang is the President at the South Korea’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies

#SouthKorea #USA

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🇨🇳 China’s spy ministry raises alert over foreign NGO theft of ‘environmental data’

China’s top spy agency sounded an alarm about foreign NGOs and foundations, saying two organizations had stolen “environmental data” from China under the guise of research and environmental protection.

The allegations referred to two cases of theft of “geographical, meteorological, biological and other sensitive data from China’s important nature reserves, posing risks and hazards to national security”.

In the first case, a professor from an unnamed country “illegally collected” data from an unspecified national wetland reserve and forest area, it said. In another case, a “foreign university” cooperated with the scientific management arm of a national nature reserve in southwest China with the support of a foreign NGO. The foreigners “instructed and coerced” the local staff to “illegally steal various kinds of sensitive data from the nature reserve”

#China

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🇰🇵 North Korea warns US allies Australia, Britain, others to stop interfering

North Korea has warned allies of the United States, including Germany, France and Britain, to stop provoking regional tensions.

The foreign ministry on Monday denounced “military interference” and what it called increased surveillance of North Korea by US allies “under the pretext of monitoring violation of UN sanctions”, in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

Pyongyang called for the UK, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia to immediately stop their “blatant military intervention in the Asia-Pacific” by using UN sanctions as an excuse, in the foreign ministry statement.

#NorthKorea

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🇨🇳 PLA Navy sends destroyers on anti-missile, anti-sub drills in South China Sea

A destroyer division from the Chinese navy carried out anti-missile and anti-submarine drills in the South China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army said, as the US and the Philippines wrapped up annual military exercises in the disputed waters.

The Southern Theatre Command posted a video of the drill online showing what it said were details of the “recent” exercise. It said the division included the Zunyi, a Type 055 guided-missile destroyer and one of the world’s most powerful such warships.

Other destroyers, including the Haikou, Kunming and Xianning, were deployed in “sea-strike tactical formation”, the command said, ready to strike targets coming from the air, the surface of the water and below it.

#China

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