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Taiwan is seeking US help to evaluate its combat readiness as defense analysts fear a growing military threat from mainland China. As the first public proclamation for US involvement in strengthening Taiwan’s military capacities, a possible alliance may form in resistance to China’s expanding influence in the autonomous region.
Read MoreOn Nov. 2, 18 leaders from ten south Asian countries met for the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bangkok to discuss key topics concerning the economy, politics, and security. During this time, Washington issued a statement scaling back US representation in EAS and ASEAN meetings; President Trump’s absence from EAS this year is deepening concerns over trade and protectionist sentiments.
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The Communist Party’s Central Committee meets in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua
The People’s Republic of China’s Central Committee is holding its first full meeting in nearly 20 months, beginning Oct. 28 and ending Oct. 31. The four-day meeting, in which the Communist Party’s 300 full and alternate members will discuss internal improvements of its domestic and foreign agenda, is being held behind closed doors in Beijing.
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A man waves an American flag at a protest rally in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP
Last Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed three pieces of legislation supporting pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The protests, now in their fifth month, have continued to engulf Hong Kong despite concessions made by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam regarding the withdrawal of the extradition bill upon which the protests were premised.
Read MoreThe series of events induced by one tweet by Daryl Morey, general manager of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Houston Rockets, have since escalated into an international incident. The Chinese government observes rising patriotic sentiment while the NBA continues to receive nationwide criticism.
Read MoreOn October 1, an 18-year-old protester was shot by Hong Kong police, marking one of the most violent days in the four months of protest. On the same day, the People’s Republic of China celebrated its 70 year anniversary in Beijing, with thousands of people attending the parade showcasing military power and social and cultural advancements.
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Revolutionary martyrs are put on display during the military parade in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Photo: Greg Baker / AFP
October 1, 2019 marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, when the nation was established under Communist rule. The day also marked the start of the country’s Golden Week, one of two “Golden Week” vacations when tourist sites across China become packed and Chinese travelers flock abroad.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. Photo: Reuters
Recently, the United States and Japan reached a trade agreement regarding Japanese agriculture and digital products, which may worsen Japan’s already unstable economy. Although the agreement is considered progress, as trade tensions rise in other areas, Japan is looking to Trump in hopes that he will make similar concessions to car tariffs in the next round of negotiations.
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The US House of Representatives voted 414 to 0 to pass House Resolution 273 — “reaffirming the US commitment to Taiwan” — at around 7 p.m. on May 7, 2019, after also passing the Taiwan Assurance Act earlier in the day by a voice vote without any objections. Credit: C-SPAN
The United States House of Representatives passed the Taiwan Assurance Act in a voice vote that had no recorded objection from the floor in the afternoon of May 7, 2019, before agreeing on a non-binding House Resolution “reaffirming the United States commitment to Taiwan” in the evening of the same day.
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People pay respects at a makeshift memorial on Thursday, May 9, 2019, to the victims of the two-car collision that claimed two lives and injured over a dozen others the day prior. Photo: KYODO
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019, a car plowed into a group of nursery children in the city of Otsu, located on the shore of Lake Biwa in western Japan’s Shiga Prefecture, killing two toddlers and injuring 13 others — a figure that includes the entire group of nursery children on the walk and the three accompanying nursery school teachers.
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Jerry Chun Shing Lee, former CIA agent, may face up to life in prison but prosecutors will seek a range of 17 to 27 years for his guilty plea. Photo: The New York Times
On Wednesday, May 1, 2019, the United States Department of Justice revealed that former Central Intelligence Agency officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 54, has admitted to conspiring with China to pass US intelligence secrets that may have contributed to the disastrous crippling of the United States’s CIA operation in China since 2010.
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Lawmakers from the Liberty Korea Party criticize the passage of reform bills at the National Assembly’s special committee on political reform. Photo: Yonhap
On Tuesday, April 30, 2019, two committees of South Korea’s National Assembly fast-tracked key reform bills amid criticism from the main opposition party — the conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) — and Prosecutor-General Moon Moo-il. The bills, backed by the governing liberal Democratic Party (DP) and three minor opposition parties, include proposals to overhaul and revamp the electoral system for parliamentary seats and a call to expand the police’s authority regarding crime investigations.
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Demonstrators against proposed changes to Hong Kong’s extradition laws march through Causeway Bay on April 28, 2019. Photo: Robert Ng/South China Morning Post
Legislation introduced on April 3, 2019 to alter Hong Kong’s extradition policy has reignited the discontent of many Hongkongers, with thousands taking to the streets in successive weeks to demand a halt to the proposed changes that would make it easier to extradite individuals into the People’s Republic of China’s secretive judicial system.
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Naruhito, the new Emperor of Japan (left) and his wife Masako, the new Empress, receive a statement congratulating the former’s succession to the throne by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on behalf of the Japanese people at the enthronement ceremony on May 1, 2019. Photo: KYODO
Japan formally ushered in the new Reiwa era on May 1, 2019 wi$th the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito as the new Emperor of Japan. Naruhito, aged 59, succeeds his father Akihito, who abdicated the throne a day prior and took the title “Emperor Emeritus” to bring the three-decade-long Heisei era to a close.
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North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) take an escalator to the room for their talks in Vladivostok, Russia, on April 25, 2019. Photo: Alexei Nokolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Photo Pool via AP
On April 23, 2019, the Kremlin confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would visit Vladivostok, Russia’s bastion and Pacific port in the Far East, for his first summit with President Vladimir Putin. This meeting, scheduled for April 25, comes approximately two months after the collapse of the talks between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi that resulted in neither agreement nor significant progress regarding the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear program.
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Moutai’s baijiu brand, a type of grain alcohol, is well regarded for its fiery, complex flavor and a unique purity known to prevent hangovers. Source: China Daily/Reuters/Fortune
Kweichow Moutai Co., China’s premier distilled liquor producer, is the most valuable liquor company in the world, producing a soy sauce-like scent of the Chinese grain alcohol baijiu that is popular among the Chinese public. It is slated to become the first company to surpass the 1,000-yuan (148.30 USD) mark in stock value, blazing the trail ahead in China’s booming equity market.
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Yokozuna Hakuho (center) drinks from a ceremonial sakazuki cup after his overall victory in the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament, held in March 2019 in Osaka, where he went undefeated through 15 bouts and secured the Emperor’s Cup. Photo: KYODO
Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal, the Mongolian-born professional sumo wrestler more commonly known by his wrestling stage name Hakuhō Shō, has filed paperwork to renounce his Mongolian citizenship. The move, reported by Mongolian media on April 17, is the first formal step in pursuing a Japanese citizenship, which is a requirement for those seeking to become a senior member (a “sumo elder”) of the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) after retirement from wrestling.
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Aerial view of committee discussions on the final day of the 71st World Health Assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland from May 21 to May 26, 2018. Photo: WHO/A. Tardy
Amid a concerted diplomatic lobbying effort triggered by Taipei at the end of the 71st World Health Assembly (WHA) last year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) conceded on April 4, 2019 that the prospects of receiving an invitation to attend the upcoming 72nd WHA, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), as an observer was “unlikely.”
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left) meets U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Apr. 11, 2019. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP
On Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2019, South Korean President Moon Jae-in left for Washington to meet with United States President Donald Trump. The purpose of their meeting, per South Korea’s presidential office, was “to coordinate their stance on setting up a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization.”
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From left to right: Occupy Central founder Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai, and Chu Yiu-ming as well as Tanya Chan chant slogans with the crowd of supporters after their trial, which convicted them all on charges of public nuisance. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters
Nine leading members of the “Umbrella Movement,” which organized the 79-day “Occupy Central” pro-democracy protests that riveted the prosperous coastal city of Hong Kong in late 2014, have been convicted by a Hong Kong district court on public nuisance charges. Additionally, the “Occupy trio” — sociology professor Chan Kin-man, 60; law professor Benny Tai, 54; and Baptist minister Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, 75 — were also found guilty of conspiring to cause public nuisance, on top of charges of inciting others to cause public nuisance.
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