The article doesn’t say, but how did these two guys secretly enter Osan Airbase?:
South Korean police arrested two Taiwanese men over the weekend for allegedly entering Osan Air Base without authorization during a U.S.-South Korean military open house and filming the event, according to local media.
The pair, identified as being in their 40s and 60s, were taken into custody Sunday after attending the Air Power Days event on Saturday, Yonhap News reported Monday, citing the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.
The air base, about 30 miles south of Seoul, is home to the U.S. 7th Air Force and the South Korean air force’s operations command. Security procedures for the event required all visitors to bring a form of government identification and check in at the base’s front gate. South Korean visitors were required to have a driver’s license or student ID; foreigners unaffiliated with the U.S. military needed to have a passport.
You can read more at the link, but Chinese and Taiwanese nationals were forbidden from entering the airbase and some how these two still got in.
BREAKING: China launches joint military exercises around Taiwan, practicing a “blockade on key areas”
On 1 April, PLA Eastern Theater Command deployed Army, Navy, Air Force, & Rocket Forces to “close in on Taiwan from multiple directions.”
– Sea-air combat readiness patrols
-… pic.twitter.com/5yJoQWMJTd— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) April 1, 2025
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.
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.
There has been a lot of concern in South Korea that a second Trump presidency would see him asking the ROK to pay more for the upkeep of U.S. forces, instead it appears Trump will be targeting Taiwan instead:
“Tariffs are great economically and good for negotiations. U.S. President Joe Biden’s policies to foster electric vehicles have only added to inflation with subsidies.”
Former President Donald Trump hinted in an interview with U.S. economic media Bloomberg Business Week that there will be an upheaval in overall economic and industrial policies if he takes power. The interview was held at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at the end of June before the shooting, but it was relentless as if it had already been elected. In fact, attention is drawn to the disclosure of the sketch of “Trumpnomics.”
In an interview released on the 16th (local time), former President Trump said, “The interest rate should remain as it is until the economy recovers,” and stressed, “The interest rate level is high now, so (the Biden administration) may want to cut interest rates, but it should not be done before the election.”
Maeil Business Newspaper
Here is where Trump discusses Taiwan:
Former President Trump attacked Taiwan for taking the U.S. semiconductor industry and saying it should be returned as defense expenses. Asked if he would defend Taiwan against China, he replied, “Taiwan has taken the U.S. semiconductor industry, so I think it should pay us for defense.” Former President Trump said, “Taiwan gives us nothing. But the United States is giving them billions of dollars to get them to produce semiconductors in the United States,” he pointed out.
You can read much more about Trumpnomics at the link.
