I guess we will see if China tries to conduct any provocations against Taiwan while its President is visiting Hawaii and Guam:
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will stop over in Hawaii and Guam during his trip to the South Pacific, drawing criticism from China. Lai is to leave Taiwan on Saturday on a weeklong trip to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau — three diplomatic allies of the self-governed island. Asked by the AP, Lai’s office on Friday confirmed reports that he would make stopovers in the U.S. state of Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam. Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, the island has just 12 formal diplomatic allies.
However, it retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, including the U.S., its main source of diplomatic and military support. Lai’s planned stopovers drew criticism from Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said if the U.S. wants to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, it is important for it to handle the Taiwan issue “with utmost caution, clearly opposing Taiwan independence and supporting China’s peaceful reunification.” Mao said China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the U.S. and Taiwan, and visits by Taiwan’s leaders to the U.S. for any reason.
You can read more at the link.
It appears the authoritarian block is sending a message to South Korea about supporting Ukraine:
South Korea scrambled fighter jets Friday after six Russian and five Chinese military aircraft entered the country’s air defense identification zone. The foreign aircraft approached the zone between 9:35 a.m. and 1:53 p.m., crossing into the buffer near the southern and eastern coasts, according to a statement from the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Air defense identification zones are buffers designed by some nations to monitor and identify approaching aircraft before they enter national airspace.
You can read more at the link.
This guy is definitely suspicious because what tourist to Korea immediately to the Heolleung and Illeung Royal Tombs after arriving at the airport?:
– A Chinese man was released from police custody after being questioned on suspicion of filming the headquarters of the state spy agency using a drone, police said Monday.
The Chinese national in his 40s was released late Sunday, a day after he was caught by the police for appearing to film the National Intelligence Service (NIS) headquarters in southern Seoul in violation of the Aviation Safety Act.
Police said the man appeared to have filmed the NIS building while taking drone footage of the nearby Heolleung and Illeung Royal Tombs, the historical burial grounds of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). (………..)
The man reportedly told police he was trying to film the royal tombs out of a deep interest in world heritage sites, with plans to film temples and other places in the country as well.
The man was also found to have headed straight to the tombs in a rented car after entering the country through Incheon International Airport on Saturday.
You can read more at the link, but they need to make example of this guy to send a message to anyone flying drones illegally.
This is clearly a lie, did an alien spacecraft push them into Japanese airspace?:
China claims an “unexpected obstruction” forced one of its military aircraft into Japanese airspace this summer, according to diplomatic sources quoted by Japan’s Kyodo news agency. China admits no wrongdoing by the Y-9 surveillance plane on Aug. 26 and makes no promises to take steps to avoid a repeat of the incident, Kyodo reported Saturday. The “obstruction” may be a reference to Japanese forces that tracked the Chinese plane, according to the news agency. The Japanese government dismissed the Chinese claims as “nonsense,” Kyodo reported, citing the same unnamed sources. The incursion, just southeast of the Danjo Islands, about 100 miles southwest of Nagasaki, lasted two minutes and sparked an intercept by Mitsubishi F-2 and F-15 Eagle fighter jets, a spokesman for Japan’s Joint Staff said the following day. Japanese government officials asked their Chinese counterparts for a full explanation of the incident during a high-level meeting on Oct. 23, according to a news release posted by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that day. The flight was a “grave violation” of Japan’s sovereignty and a threat to its security, then-Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters Aug. 27.
You can read more at the link.
It is kind of ironic that the Chinese arrested this guy for industrial espionage when they are likely the world’s leaders in industrial espionage:
China confirmed Tuesday that it has detained a South Korean citizen on suspicion of violating the country’s anti-espionage law, marking the first case where a South Korean national has been arrested in China since the revised law took effect last year.
“A South Korean national was arrested by Chinese authorities on charges of espionage,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry, told a press briefing, without disclosing other details.
He said China has notified the South Korean Embassy in Beijing of the incident in a bid to help it provide necessary consular assistance.
“As a law-governing country, China has detected illegal activity in accordance with the law while guaranteeing the person’s legitimate rights,” he said.
The 50-something person, living in Hefei, in China’s eastern province of Anhui, was arrested late last year on charges of violating the anti-espionage law, according to diplomatic sources.
Chinese authorities are believed to have suspected the person of leaking semiconductor-related information to South Korea as the individual was working at a chipmaker in China.
You can read more at the link.
The Japanese are responding to recent Chinese provocations into their ADIZ and EEZ with sailing through the Taiwan Strait:
A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time on Wednesday, according to a local media report. The destroyer JS Sazanami, along with Australian and New Zealand vessels, sailed south from the East China Sea and through the 110-mile-wide channel separating the island from mainland China, Kyodo News reported, citing an unnamed source who was “familiar with the matter.” The ships were believed to be headed to the South China Sea to participate in exercises, the report said.
You can read more at the link.
