By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The American economy slipped yet again to a lower ranking in 2016 as a result of a combination of regulatory burdens, large public debt and business taxes according to a watchdog survey of global economic freedoms. The annual Heritage Index of Economic Freedom saw the U.S. economy slip […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has arrived in Baghdad for a previously unannounced visit focusing on the effort to defeat Islamic State (ISIS) militants. Mattis’s arrival on Feb. 20 comes a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced a new phase in the operation […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Parris H. Chang President Tsai Ing-wen’s phone call with U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump last December and his questioning of the “one China” policy have angered Beijing. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi jeered at Tsai for playing a “petty trick;” her call, however, was planned weeks in advance and assisted by Trump’s […]
by WorldTribune Staff, January 11, 2017 Taiwan’s military was on placed on high alert as a group of Chinese ships, led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier, transited the Taiwan Strait on Jan. 11. According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, Beijing’s Soviet-built aircraft carrier, returning from exercises in the South China Sea, had not entered Taiwan’s territorial […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Geostrategy-Direct.com U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told the Chinese defense delegation in Singapore that the U.S. will take appropriate action if China crosses the red line, i.e. further reclamation and militarization of the Scarborough Shoal in the Spratlys chain. The Philippines and China have fiercely clashed over the Scarborough Shoal […]
by WorldTribune Staff, January 3, 2017 Japan drew angry protests from China after changing the name of its Taiwanese embassy, a move Beijing saw as Tokyo taking a step toward recognizing Taiwan as a separate country. The name of Japan’s Taiwanese embassy in Taipei was officially changed in a ceremony on Jan. 3 from “The […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Jonathan Alexander, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs The “Great Intra-Muslim War” — which began with the split within the jihadist movement after the death of Osama bin Laden — seems set to resume its intensity. It had become lost in the major wars in Syria and Iraq, and in the civil war […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 26, 2016 China’s lone aircraft carrier and five other vessels were spotted passing near Taiwan on Dec. 26 in what was described as a “warning to the United States.” The Liaoning carrier’s armada passed about 90 nautical miles south of Taiwan’s most southerly point via the Bashi Channel that runs between […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, ‘Inside China’, Geostrategy-Direct.com “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 12, 2016 Unlike his predecessor, analysts say U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is signaling he won’t capitulate to China early in his presidency. “I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China […]
