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August
Taiwanese foreign minister says China drills part of a game-plan for invasion
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan's foreign minister said on Tuesday that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit as a game-plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island.
Joseph Wu, who offered no time-table for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which is claimed by China as its own, said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued with China often breaching the unofficial median line down the Taiwan Strait.
"China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan," Wu told a news conference in Taipei.
"It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation, and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan.
"After the drills conclude, China may try to routinize its action in an attempt to wreck the long-term status quo across the Taiwan Strait."
Such moves threatened regional security and provided "a clear image of China's geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan", Wu said, urging greater international support to stop China effectively controlling the strait.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office responded to Wu's comments by saying he was a "diehard" supporter of Taiwan independence, and his remarks "distort the truth and obscure the facts".
A Pentagon official said on Monday that Washington was sticking to its assessment that China would not try to invade Taiwan for the next two years.
Wu spoke as military tensions simmer after the scheduled end on Sunday of four days of the largest-ever Chinese exercises surrounding the island - drills that included ballistic missile launches and simulated sea and air attacks in the skies and seas surrounding Taiwan.
Pelosi said on Tuesday her visit to Taiwan had been "absolutely" worth it and hard harsh words for Beijing.
"We cannot allow the Chinese government to isolate Taiwan," she said in an interview with NBC News. China managed to exclude Taiwan from the World Health Organization, she said, but "they're not going to say who can go to Taiwan."
Her visit followed President Joe Biden's directive that the United States would focus on the Asia-Pacific region and had overwhelming bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, she said.
China's Eastern Theatre Command said on Monday it would conduct fresh joint drills focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations - confirming the fears of some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing would keep up the pressure on Taiwan's defences.
On Tuesday, the command said it continued to hold military drills and exercises in the seas and airspace around Taiwan, with warships, fighters as well as early warning, refuelling and jamming aircraft "under a complex electromagnetic environment to refine joint containment and control capabilities".
'STANDOFF'
A person familiar with security planning in the areas around Taiwan said there was a continuing standoff around the median line involving about 10 warships each from China and Taiwan.
"China continued to try to press in to the median line," the person told Reuters. "Taiwan forces there have been trying to keep the international waterways open."
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that China's continued military exercises "highlight that its threat of force has not decreased", adding that 16 Chinese fighters had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait at its northern end.
As Pelosi left the region last Friday, China also ditched some lines of communication with the United States, including theatre level military talks and discussions on climate change.
Taiwan started its own long-scheduled drills on Tuesday, firing howitzer artillery out to sea in the southern county of Pingtung, attracting a small crowd of curious onlookers to a nearby beach.
Biden, in his first public comments on the issue since Pelosi's visit, said on Monday he was concerned about China's actions in the region but he was not worried about Taiwan.
"I'm concerned they are moving as much as they are," Biden told reporters in Delaware. "But I don't think they're going to do anything more than they are."
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl also said the U.S. military would continue to carry out voyages through the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.
China has never ruled out taking Taiwan by force and on Monday Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China was conducting normal military exercises "in our waters" in an open, transparent and professional way, adding Taiwan was part of China.
Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide the island's future. (Reuters)
August
The median line in the Taiwan Strait is a tacit understanding that has existed since the 1950s and its existence is a "fact", Taiwan's Defence Ministry said on Monday, after Chinese ships and planes repeatedly crossed it during drills. (Reuters)
August
Taiwan's Tsai 'deeply touched' by St Vincent PM's visit amid China tension
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told visiting St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Monday that she was moved by his determination to visit Taiwan, despite China's recent military exercises around the self-ruled island.
"Prime Minister Gonsalves has expressed in recent days that the Chinese military drills would not prevent him from visiting friends in Taiwan. These statements have deeply touched us," Tsai said at a welcome ceremony for Gonsalves in Taipei.
The prime minister of the Caribbean country - one of around a dozen nations to have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan - said he was on the island to express solidarity, strengthen bilateral relations and pursue peace, security and prosperity for all.
"As in our own hemisphere, the Western hemisphere, we do not like it and we do not support it when any powerful neighbour seeks to intimidate us or bully us," Gonsalves said. "Wherever there are differences, we must settle them peacefully in a civilised manner."
This is Gonsalves's twelfth visit to Taiwan, and the eleventh as prime minister, "clearly demonstrating the importance that he attaches to diplomatic relations between our countries," Tsai said.
In recent days, China has held unprecedented military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan and launched ballistic missiles over the island's capital for the first time.
The drills were launched in response to a visit to the self-governing island by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week and were initially scheduled to end on Sunday, the day Gonsalves arrived in Taiwan for a six-day visit.
China's military said on Monday that it is continuing drills in the seas and skies around Taiwan.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and claims the island as its own territory.
Taiwan's government says China has no right to speak for it or claim sovereignty, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their own future and the People's Republic of China has never controlled any part of the island. (Reuters)
August
Thai poll shows majority want PM to leave office this month
Written by Nur Yasmin
Nearly two-thirds of people in Thailand want Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to leave office this month, according to an opinion poll, which comes amid growing debate about how long the 2014 coup architect should stay in power.
Thailand's opposition plans to petition the constitutional court to decide whether Prayuth's time as prime minister in the junta counts towards his tenure as premier, which is limited to eight years.
The Aug. 2-4 survey of 1,312 people by the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) found 64% wanted Prayuth to leave office on Aug. 23, exactly eight years after he took the post of prime minister in what was then a military government.
The survey, released on Sunday, showed 33% preferred to wait for a court ruling.
Asked by reporters on Monday about the opposition's move, Prayuth, 68, said: "It is a court matter".
The tenure issue is one of many opposition efforts to remove Prayuth, including four parliamentary no-confidence motions, a conflict of interest case over his use of a military residence and months of youth-led protests that challenged his leadership and the monarchy.
Prayuth was junta leader and prime minister from 2014 until an election in 2019, after which a new parliament chose him to remain prime minister.
According to the constitution, an election must be called within the next 10 months, but the retired general has given no indication of when that will happen.
Views among Prayuth's supporters vary, with some saying his premiership started when a new constitution was promulgated in 2017, while others say it began after the 2019 election.
The NIDA poll did not mention the opposing arguments in its question on Prayuth's tenure. (Reuters)
August
Solomons leader did not attend U.S. war memorial service in 'snub,' local media report
Written by Nur Yasmin
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare did not attend a weekend dawn service for a key World War Two battle organised by the United States, with local media reporting it as a "snub".
The Solomon Star News said Sogavare was due to give a speech at a memorial service that was attended by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and ministers and officials from Japan, Australia and New Zealand on Sunday, but he did not appear.
Sherman told a news conference Sogavare was on the printed programme for the ceremony, which marked the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal, and when she met him later in the day, she told him she was sorry he didn't attend.
"The real sorrow here is that I think he missed a real opportunity to commemorate how strong these bonds were 80 years ago that allowed for freedom here in Solomon Islands," she told reporters on Sunday, according to a transcript released on Monday.
The U.S. ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, was also at the series of ceremonies and paid tribute to two Solomon Islanders who had saved the life of her father, John F. Kennedy, who later became U.S. president.
Sherman said her meeting with Sogavare was wide ranging and "very bold", and she had raised U.S. concerns over his government's security pact with China.
Honiara and Beijing have denied the pact will allow a military base.
"The prime minister and I talked today about how there is no conflict in the Pacific right now, and we all want to keep it that way," she said.
Sogavare's office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
At a ceremony on Monday, Sherman praised the role of Solomon Islanders in assisting the United States in World War Two.
A Japanese Navy sailor was stabbed during Monday's service at Bloody Ridge, a spokesman at the Japanese Embassy in the Solomon Islands confirmed to Reuters.
The motivation for the attack was unknown. The victim was treated at the scene by U.S. military medics and needed two stitches, the spokesman added.
The Solomon Star News reported a local man was in custody over the attack. (Reuters)
August
China foreign ministry: Military drills in 'our own waters' open, transparent
Written by Nur Yasmin
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday that Taiwan is part of China, and China is conducting normal military exercises "in our own waters" in an open, transparent and professional way.
The relevant departments have also issued announcements in a timely manner, and this is in line with both domestic and international law, said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman at the ministry, at a regular media briefing.
Wang was asked whether or not China's continuation of its military drills abides by international law, and if a new warning for civilian ships and aircraft will be issued.
China's military announced fresh drills on Monday around Taiwan, a self-governed island which Beijing claims as its own, following days of exercises to protest against last week's visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Reuters)
August
North Korea to convene parliament, anti-epidemic meeting amid zero-COVID claim
Written by Nur Yasmin
North Korea will convene two key meetings, including one to review the country's anti-epidemic policy, in coming weeks, state media said on Monday, as it claims no new COVID-19 cases since late July.
The North Korean Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), the isolated state's rubber-stamp parliament, will meet on Sept. 7 to discuss law on rural development and organizational matters, according to the official KCNA.
Separately, North Korea decided to hold a national meeting for emergency anti-epidemic review early August "to confirm the new orientation" in its policy.
The COVID meeting comes as North Korea has said last week all of its patients with fever have recovered, marking the end of its first wave of the coronavirus pandemic since its admission of the virus outbreak in mid-May.
The reclusive country has never confirmed how many people were infected with COVID-19. But it said around 4.77 million fever patients have fully recovered and 74 have died since late April.
North Korea's parliament rarely meets and usually serves to approve decisions on issues that have been created by the state's powerful Workers' Party, members of which form the vast majority of the assembly.
The decision to convene the parliament came at a plenary meeting of the SPA's standing committee on Sunday, KCNA said.
At the weekend meeting, the participants adopted the law on medicines to establish a "strict system" to promote public health, among other issues.
Other matters on the table included revising the aerospace development law "to further legalize the activities" in the field and adopting the "law of self-guard" to establish what it calls "all-people self-guard system" to protect people's life and property, KCNA said, without elaborating.
Space launches have long been a sensitive issue on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea faces international sanctions over its nuclear-armed ballistic missile programme.
In March, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un called for expanding its space rocket launch site to advance its space ambitions, after South Korea and the United States accused it of testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile under the guise of space development. (Reuters)
August
Myanmar's ambassador to China died suddenly on Sunday in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, according to an obituary in Myanmar state media and diplomatic sources in Beijing.
The obituary for Ambassador U Myo Thant Pe by Myanmar's foreign ministry in a state newspaper on Monday did not specify his cause of death.
Diplomats in Beijing and a Chinese language Myanmar media report said the cause was likely to be a heart attack.
U Myo Thant Pe was last seen on Saturday meeting a local official in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan which borders Myanmar, according to a local news report.
The Myanmar embassy in China did not immediately respond to a query for comment.
U Myo Thant Pe was appointed ambassador to China in 2019 and stayed in his post after Myanmar's military took power in a coup in February 2021.
He was the fourth ambassador to die in China in the past year.
German ambassador Jan Hecker, 54, died in September, less than two weeks into his Beijing posting. Ukraine ambassador Serhiy Kamyshev, 65, died in February during or shortly after a visit to a Beijing Winter Olympics venue.
Philippines ambassador Jose Santiago "Chito" Sta. Romana, 74, died in quarantine in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui in April. (reuters)
August
Yemen FM says Iran-aligned Houthis not committed to key parts of U.N.-brokered truce
Written by Nur Yasmin
Yemen's internationally recognised government accused the Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Monday of not abiding by a key element in a U.N.-brokered truce to reopen roads to the besieged city of Taiz saying the group was "running away" from its commitments.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak also said in a news conference in Amman that his Aden-based government supports any move to expand a U.N.-brokered truce beyond the latest two-month extension to a durable peace deal. (Reuters)
August
Singapore PM warns of worsening geopolitical climate in national address
Written by Nur Yasmin
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday warned of the scope for miscalculations over tensions in the Taiwan Strait, which he said were unlikely to ease soon amid deep suspicion and limited engagement between the United States and China.
"Around us, a storm is gathering. U.S.-China relations are worsening, with intractable issues, deep suspicions, and limited engagement," Lee said in an address ahead of Singapore's national day, adding the region must be braced for a future that was not as stable as it has been until now. (Reuters)