Tag - pla

 
 

PLA

A "presidential alert" message issued by the authorities to all phones across Taiwan is seen Tuesday after the government issued a national emergency alert following China's launch of a satellite.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 9, 2024
China satellite launch triggers Taiwan emergency phone alert
Chinese state media said that Beijing had successfully launched the "Einstein Probe satellite using the Long March-2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center."
(From left) The Democratic Progressive Party's Lai Ching-te, who is also Taiwan's vice president, faces off against the main opposition Kuomintang's Hou Yu-ih and the Taiwan People's Party's Ko Wen-je on Saturday's presidential election.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jan 9, 2024
Close race emerges as Taiwan election enters final stretch
Expectations that front-runner Lai Ching-te would simply stroll to victory on Saturday have been dashed, with his polling lead having narrowed significantly.
Taiwanese flags at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei in December 2022
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 8, 2024
U.S. policy unlikely to shift after Taiwan poll, ex-de facto envoy says
Any differences in Washington's reaction would be "nuanced," and rather involve "adjustments in degree than in type,” said former AIT chief Douglas H. Paal.
Taiwan flags adorn the streets of Taipei on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 8, 2024
China's balloons inflate Taiwan poll fears
Since December, Taipei has said that mysterious balloons were crossing the Taiwan Strait, with their purpose being "gray-zone" harassment that stops short of open warfare.
The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue in February when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 6, 2024
Taiwan slams Chinese balloons as safety threat
Taiwan is on high alert for Chinese military and political activity ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Chinese President Xi Jinping during a military parade in October 2019
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 31, 2023
Sweeping Chinese military purge exposes weakness and could widen
China's top lawmakers ousted nine senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported.
New recruits for the People's Liberation Army attend a ceremony at a railway station in Ganzhou, in China's Jiangxi province, in March.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023
China’s legislature ousts nine military cadres as turmoil widens
The removals are a sign Chinese President Xi Jinping’s nearly decadelong drive to clean up the People’s Liberation Army is still incomplete.
A woman holding an umbrella walks near a fluttering Taiwanese flag outside the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei in November.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 25, 2023
What’s at stake in Taiwan’s January presidential election?
Depending on the outcome, the closely watched vote could have markedly different security and economic implications for the entire region.
Some analysts say China seeks ambiguity in defense relations to constrain what Beijing sees as U.S. military provocations in the region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 22, 2023
U.S. and China top brass speak for first time in over a year
U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown and Gen. Liu Zhenli of China's People's Liberation Army touched on "a number of global and regional security issues."
A group of 79 soldiers at the U.S. Army’s jungle training school prepare to enter a river on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Nov. 29. Far from the deserts of the Middle East, the Army is instructing troops in Hawaii on the skills needed for a potential clash with China.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2023
U.S. military returns to the jungle, training for future threats
Far from the deserts of the Middle East, the Army is instructing troops in Hawaii on the skills needed for a potential clash with China.
Taiwan officials have repeatedly warned that China is trying to sway voters toward candidates seeking closer ties with Beijing, whose government has framed the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections as a choice between "peace and war."
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 13, 2023
Chinese forces neared Taiwan to 'intimidate' voters before elections
Taiwan's military drove away four attempts by Chinese forces to approach the island's sensitive contiguous zone last month, Taiwan security officials said, in what they see as a ramped-up Chinese campaign to "intimidate" voters before key elections.
A China Coast Guard vessel uses a water cannon against a Philippine supply boat as it carries out a mission to deliver provisions to the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 11, 2023
Manila summons Chinese envoy after tense weekend in South China Sea
The moves came after the Philippines said one of its vessels was rammed and others "directly targeted” by a China Coast Guard ship with a water cannon.
The U.S. Army's prototype Mid-Range Capability system, known as the “Typhon” Strategic Mid-Range Fires system, is seen in this image released in July following its successful launch of a Tomahawk missile.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 5, 2023
U.S. to deploy powerful new missile launcher to Indo-Pacific in '24
The system, which is capable of firing weapons with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, is unlikely to be deployed in Japan.
The USS Gabrielle Giffords sails in the Pacific Ocean in September 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2023
China says U.S. Navy ship ‘seriously violated’ its sovereignty
The move in disputed waters of the South China Sea underscored lingering military tensions between the nations.
Chinese vessels gather near Whitsun Reef in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Saturday. The Philippines said Sunday that more than 135 Chinese "maritime militia" vessels were "swarming" the reef.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2023
Philippines says Chinese boats 'swarming' reef in South China Sea
Manila said that more than 135 Chinese “maritime militia” ships were “swarming” a reef that it claims sovereignty over in the disputed waterway.
Charles Q. Brown
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 3, 2023
Top U.S. general still waiting to hear from China on military ties
At a summit in November, President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, promised to restore military communications.
An Australian F-35A fighter jet takes part in a joint exercise between Australian and Philippine troops at a naval base in Zambales province, Philippines, in August.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 26, 2023
Chinese fighter jets 'orbit' Philippine patrol aircraft, Manila says
The Philippine and Australian militaries carried out a second day of sea and air exercises in the Southeast Asian country's exclusive economic zone.
The Royal Australian Navy vessel the Toowoomba is docked at Changi Naval Base  during IMDEX Asia 2023, a maritime defense exhibition in Singapore, in May.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 25, 2023
Philippines, Australia start sea and air patrols in South China Sea
The move comes after Manila took similar steps with the U.S. as Pacific nations warily eye an increasingly assertive China.
Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te (left), presidential candidate from the Democratic Progressive Party, introduces Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan's de facto envoy to the United States, as his running mate in the 2024 election, during a news conference at Lai's campaign headquarters in Taipei on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 20, 2023
Taiwan presidential front-runner taps U.S. envoy as running mate
Lai Ching-te tapped Hsiao Bi-khim, a fluent English speaker who had been Taiwan's de facto ambassador to the U.S., to join him on the DPP ticket.
Children take shelter when hearing an air raid sirens during an event held by the Taiwanese civil defense organization Kuma Academy, in New Taipei City on Saturday to raise awareness of natural disaster and war preparedness.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 19, 2023
APEC over, Taiwan reports renewed Chinese military activity
With Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco last week, where he met U.S. President Joe Biden, the frequency of military activity had leveled off.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?