Taiwan scrambles fighter jets as China carrier enters strait

Taiwan scrambles fighter jets as China carrier enters strait

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 […]

Greatest hits, No. 5: Pentagon gives Beijing ultimatum on militarizing the South China Sea

Greatest hits, No. 5: Pentagon gives Beijing ultimatum on militarizing the South China Sea

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 […]

China angered at change in name of Taiwan embassy in Japan

China angered at change in name of Taiwan embassy in Japan

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 […]

Al Qaida is coming back, stronger than before

Al Qaida is coming back, stronger than before

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 […]

China’s carrier fleet passes near Taiwan in warning to U.S.

China’s carrier fleet passes near Taiwan in warning to U.S.

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 […]

Trump crisis in Beijing: Five ‘knowns and unknowns’ have Xi Jinping in the panic mode

Trump crisis in Beijing: Five ‘knowns and unknowns’ have Xi Jinping in the panic mode

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 […]

Trump: Why should U.S. be ‘bound’ by a ‘one China policy’?

Trump: Why should U.S. be ‘bound’ by a ‘one China policy’?

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 […]

Strategic surprise: With Dec. 2 Taiwan call, Trump challenges China’s breakout from containment

Strategic surprise: With Dec. 2 Taiwan call, Trump challenges China’s breakout from containment

Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs The Dec. 2, telephone conversation between Republic of China (ROC: Taiwan) President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump very deliberately ushered in a new era in U.S. engagement in Asia, one designed to stop the rapid decline in U.S. credibility and […]

Trump’s Taiwan call seen pre-empting Chinese provocation early in his administration

Trump’s Taiwan call seen pre-empting Chinese provocation early in his administration

by WorldTribune Staff, December 6, 2016 Did Donald Trump beat China to the punch? The President-elect’s interaction with Taiwan’s president was seen by some observers as a pre-emptive hit on Beijing, which some analysts suggested was intent on delivering a testing Trump early in his administration. Trump’s 10-minute phone conversation with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, […]

Trump’s call with Taiwan sparks international crisis . . . with U.S. ‘experts’ on China

Trump’s call with Taiwan sparks international crisis . . . with U.S. ‘experts’ on China

by WorldTribune Staff, December 4, 2016 “Donald Trump took the call. The voice on the other end of the line was Taiwan’s president [Tsai Ing-wen] congratulating him,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Browne in Taipei, Taiwan. Why the furor that subsequently erupted in the U.S. media? “No president-elect, or president, has spoken to a […]