🇹🇼 Taiwan’s Lai vows extra $40 Billion for defense against China

Taiwan plans to spend an extra $40 billion on its defenses, President Lai Ching-te said in a commentary in the Washington Post, a long-telegraphed move he described as necessary to deter China from using force against the democracy.

The expenditure will be part of a supplementary defense budget the government will introduce to “not only fund significant new arms acquisitions from the United States, but also vastly enhance Taiwan’s asymmetrical capabilities,” Lai wrote on Tuesday. He avoided going into detail on where the money would come from.

The special budget proposal will likely face obstacles once Lai’s cabinet formally proposes it given it requires the approval of the legislature, which is controlled by the opposition.

#Taiwan

@asianomics

🇨🇳🇺🇸 Trump says he will visit Beijing in April

President Donald Trump said that he has accepted an invitation from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit Beijing in April and that he reciprocated by inviting Xi for a state visit to the US later next year.

Trump made the announcement after he spoke with Xi by phone nearly a month after the two leaders met in person in South Korea, saying they discussed issues including Ukraine, fentanyl and purchases of American soybeans.

Beijing, which announced the phone call first, said nothing about the state visits but noted that the two leaders discussed trade, Taiwan and Ukraine. Xi told Trump that Taiwan’s return to mainland China is “an integral part of the postwar international order,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said — a crucial issue to Beijing that Trump did not mention in his post.

#China #USA

@asianomics

🇯🇵 Japan opposition parties brace for possible early snap election

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s high approval ratings are prodding opposition parties to ramp up preparations in case she calls an early election, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Nov 26.

Jun Azumi, an executive of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) - the country’s largest opposition party - signaled on Nov 25 his party will work with other parties to win back seats from the ruling coalition, the Yomiuri said.

Proponents of an early election hope Ms Takaichi’s popularity can help the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) win enough seats to reclaim a majority in the powerful lower house.

#Japan

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🇯🇵🇺🇸🇹🇼🇨🇳 Trump advised Japan PM Takaichi not to provoke Beijing over Taiwan

US President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a phone call not to provoke China on the question of Taiwan's sovereignty, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

"The advice from Trump was subtle and he didn't pressure Takaichi to walk back her comments," the newspaper said, citing those briefed on the call.

Trump has praised Takaichi for her tough stance on defense and, during his recent visit to Japan, demonstrated the strength of the US-Japan alliance. However, she has infuriated Chinese President Xi Jinping at what the US daily described as "a bad time for Trump, as he cultivates a relationship with the Chinese leader."

According to a person briefed on the matter, Trump suggested to Takaichi during their phone conversation that she tone down her comments about Taiwan, the newspaper wrote.

#Japan #USA #Taiwan #China

@asianomics

🇹🇼🇨🇳 Taiwan says it has discussed with US arms purchases for extra defence budget

Taiwan has already held preliminary talks with the United States about what weapons it wants to buy as part of a US$40 billion supplementary defense budget, Defense Minister Wellington Koo said.

Taiwan has formally obtained from the US Department of Defense the procurement item quantities, quotation information, transaction timelines, and other relevant details, showing the United States is willing to provide the weapons, Koo added.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te announced the previous day the new spending plan, which runs from 2026-2033, to underscore the island's determination to defend itself in the face of a rising threat from China.

#Taiwan #China

@asianomics

🇳🇿🇹🇼🇨🇳 New Zealand navy ship made rare transit through Taiwan Strait this month

The New Zealand navy's largest ship, the oiler HMNZS Aotearoa, made a rare transit through the sensitive Taiwan Strait earlier this month, Defence Minister Judith Collins said.

One source with knowledge of the situation said the ship was tracked and followed by Chinese forces as it sailed through the strait.

The ship sailed from the South China Sea to the North Asian region via the Taiwan Strait on November 5, the minister added.

The last publicized strait transit by New Zealand's navy, accompanied by an Australian navy ship, took place in September last year. That was the first time a New Zealand naval ship had passed through the strait since 2017.

#NewZealand #Taiwan #China

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🇨🇳🇻🇳 Huawei, ZTE seal 5G deals in Vietnam after US tariffs

China's leading telecommunication firms Huawei and ZTE have won a string of contracts this year to supply 5G equipment in Vietnam, in another sign of Hanoi's strengthening bonds with Beijing, stirring concern among Western officials.

For years, Vietnam was seen as reluctant to use Chinese technology in sensitive infrastructure, but in recent months it has embraced Chinese tech companies as sometimes frosty relations with its northern neighbor have warmed.

While Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia secured contracts for Vietnam's 5G core infrastructure, with US chipmaker Qualcomm providing network equipment, Chinese companies have begun winning smaller tenders with state-owned operators.

A consortium including Huawei was awarded a $23 million contract for 5G equipment in April, weeks after the White House announced tariffs on Vietnamese goods. ZTE has won at least two contracts, one last week, totaling more than $20 million for 5G antennas. The first publicly disclosed deal came in September, a month after U.S. tariffs took effect.

#China #Vietnam

@asianomics

🇨🇳🇫🇷 China turns to France for support during its feud with Japan

Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi used a call with his French counterpart to say the two sides needed to back each other, underscoring Beijing’s push to win diplomatic backing during a spat with Japan.

Wang said in the call on Nov 27 with the French president’s diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had “made provocative remarks related to Taiwan” earlier in November.

Beijing and Paris should “firmly support each other on issues involving each other’s core interests”, Wang said, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Beijing. “I hope that the French side will continue to firmly abide by the one-China principle.”

#China #France

@asianomics

🇦🇺 Australia to overhaul defense bureaucracy to improve spending, delivery, says minister

Australia will reorganize its defense department, forming a Defense Delivery Agency and appointing a national armaments director to improve defense spending and delivery, Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Monday.

The changes to start in July next year will merge the existing Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Group, and Naval Shipbuilding and Sustainment Group. The new agency will report directly to the defense minister.

The reforms "will see a much bigger bang for buck for the defence spend", as Australia plans to spend an extra A$70 billion over the next decade, Marles said.

#Australia

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🇹🇼 Taiwan’s first domestically built submarine misses delivery deadline

Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC Corp has missed the deadline for completing Taiwan’s first domestically made submarine, the defense minister said on Dec 1.

The vessel is part of a submarine program launched in 2016 that aims to deliver a fleet of eight vessels, but opposition lawmakers have criticized the repeated delays in the project.

Sea trials of the submarine began in June, nearly two years after it was first unveiled. The original target was to wrap up testing by Sept 30 and deliver the submarine by the end of November, the navy said previously. But Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Dec 1 that sea trials were still ongoing.

#Taiwan

@asianomics

🇫🇷🇨🇳 Macron heads to China as Europe walks tightrope between rivalry and reliance

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to China this week for his fourth state visit, as Europe seeks to balance economic and security threats from Beijing with reliance on the world's second-largest economy during a time of global trade turmoil.

Macron in the past has sought to project a robust European front in dealing with China, while being careful not to antagonize Beijing, whose growing assertiveness is testing trade, security and diplomatic ties, analysts say.

Macron, who will start his trip with a visit to Beijing's Forbidden City on Wednesday, will meet President Xi Jinping on Thursday in the capital and again on Friday during a trip to Chengdu, in southwestern Sichuan province.

His visit comes after a tense trip by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July, when she said ties between the EU and China were at an "inflection point."

#France #China

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🇨🇳 China issues first batch of streamlined rare earth export licenses

At least three Chinese rare earth magnet makers have secured licenses enabling them to accelerate exports to some customers, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, fulfilling a key outcome of the summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

China began designing a new rare earth licensing regime centered around so-called "general licenses" following the late October meeting between Trump and Xi that eased trade tensions between the two countries.

JL Mag Rare Earth has obtained licenses to ship to nearly all of its clients, while Ningbo Yunsheng and Beijing Zhong Ke San Huan High-Tech secured licenses to export to some of their clients, the source said.

#China

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🇰🇷 President Lee says S. Korea's own nuclear armament 'impossible'

President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday dismissed calls for South Korea's own nuclear armament, saying it would be "impossible" to gain the international community's approval.

Lee made the remark during a Cabinet meeting amid renewed calls from some opposition lawmakers to push for the country's nuclear armament.

"The uranium enrichment and nuclear reprocessing issues are in some ways not proceeding smoothly and swiftly. The reason for that is there are concerns about nuclear armament," Lee said during the meeting at the presidential office, citing "various kinds of talk" in some departments of the US government.

#SouthKorea

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🇯🇵 PM Takaichi's "work, work, work" remark tops Japan 2025 catchphrase list

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remark, "I will work, work, work, work and work," was selected as Japan's top catchphrase for 2025, the award's organizer said Monday.

Takaichi made the remark after winning the leadership election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Oct. 4 that helped her become the country's first female prime minister later that month.

"I will have everyone work like a workhorse. I, myself, will abandon the idea of work-life balance," Takaichi also told her fellow LDP lawmakers, drawing criticism from lawyers representing victims of "karoshi," or death from overwork, who said her comments were not helping the country, notorious for extensive working hours.

#Japan

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