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With the launch of its second aircraft carrier, China has enhanced its position in the front ranks of military powers and prompted questions as to the ultimate purpose of its navy. The Chinese navy, formally known as the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), is expanding and will be doing so for years — decades — to come. Some of this is the natural consequence of being the navy of a country in economic ascendancy. Some of this is bureaucratic politics; the PLA is represented on the Communist Party Central Committee, and the PLA answers to the Chinese Communist Party, not...

President Trump accused China of attempting to interfere in the November midterm elections during a Wednesday speech at the United Nations Security Council. "Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November. Against my administration," Trump said. "They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade. And we are winning on trade. We are winning at every level. We don't want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election," he added.

President Trump accused China on Wednesday of attempting to meddle in the November midterm elections and claimed it does not want Republicans to win because of his actions on trade. "Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election," Trump said during a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York. "They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade." The president remarks amplify his administration's concern China has joined Russia and other nations in attempting to interfere in U.S. elections. Director...

China on Monday denied a United States Navy permission request for a port visit next month to Hong Kong, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The decision to deny the port visit comes as tensions between the U.S. and China escalate on both economic and military fronts. The ship, the Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group, is currently in the East China Sea, according to the Journal. The ship has been at sea since August and can hold as many as 1,600 Marines and sailors on board, the newspaper reported. China also canceled an upcoming meeting between top naval officers from...

After the big bang of the Singapore summit in June, with its showy but vague North Korean commitment to denuclearization, many analysts doubted that the deal had any real substance. But we're beginning to see the first signs of what a serious accord would look like. This week's North-South summit meeting in Pyongyang produced accord on some basic essentials of a real denuclearization process. North Korea agreed to accept internal inspectors to monitor destruction of one of its test sites, a first step toward the broader inspection process that will be essential for any verifiable pact. North Korea also agreed...

Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe acknowledges applause from the LDP lawmakers shortly after his name was called as the winner of the ruling party presidential elections at its headquarters in Tokyo on Sept. 20. (AP Photo) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a ruling party leadership vote on Thursday, putting him on track to become Japan's longest-serving prime minister and to try to cement his legacy, including by revision of the country's pacifist, post-war Constitution. If Abe, who quit abruptly after a troubled 2006-07 term, stays in office through November 2019, he will have exceeded the 2,886 days marked by...

FULL TITLE: China's Chilling 'Social Credit System' Is Straight Out of Dystopian Sci-Fi, And It's Already Switched On Like Black Mirror. Totally like Black Mirror. It's been in the pipeline for years: a sprawling, technological mass surveillance network the likes of which the world has never seen. And it's already been switched on. China's "Social Credit System" – which is expected to be fully operational by 2020 – doesn't just monitor the nation's almost 1.4 billion citizens. It's also designed to control and coerce them, in a gigantic social engineering experiment that some have called the "gamification of trust". That's...

As the latest salvos were fired in the growing trade war between the United States and China, concerns continue to mount in the business community about how just how long the conflict might endure. Alibaba group founder and China’s richest man Jack Ma recently spoke to an investor summit in Hangzhou, China regarding his thoughts on the direction the trade war may take. In his speech, Ma said the trade war was “going to be a mess,” and that regarding its potential duration it could last for “maybe 20 years.” Ma went on to compare the current trade dispute...

North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un wants to meet with President Trump again, says South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has just returned from Pyongyang. Moon also spoke directly to the North Korean public, describing a peaceful future to an audience of some 150,000 people. "We had lived together for five thousand years but apart for just 70 years," Moon said in his speech on Thursday, in which he repeatedly addressed the crowd as "Citizens of Pyongyang, fellow Koreans." Moon continued, "Here, at this place today, I propose we move forward toward the big picture of peace in which the...

The latest escalation in the trade war did not have the dire consequences many predicted for the stock market. Stocks rose Tuesday after the Trump administration announced new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods and China promised to retaliate with tariffs on an additional $60 billion of U.S. goods.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 184 points, or 0.74 percent. The S&P 500 rose by half a percentage point. The Nasdaq Composite advanced eight-tenths of a percentage point.The rise in U.S. stocks was all the more notable because the new tariffs are scheduled to go into effect September 24, sooner...

Jim Cramer says that the latest round of tariffs on China-made goods sends the message that the “game is over.” Cramer, who is the most popular personality on CNBC, defended the latest round of tariffs the Trump administration announced Monday night. “I think the president is saying, ‘Hey, listen guys, you are not going to make as much money in China as you used to. That game is over because we have to win the trade war,'” Cramer said Tuesday. Cramer also said that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was correct that the China tariffs would not hurt U.S. consumers. “Wilbur...

Taiwan is a country under siege as it faces the prospect of eventual reunification with China, on China’s terms, and potentially as soon as 2021—the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

Last week the White House announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a letter via South Korea to President Trump sending ‘warm’ regards and a request for a second summit following their historic Singapore meeting earlier this year. The request has generated much speculation among Western and Asian diplomatic and geopolitical circles as to what it means in regards to the primary objective of the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and other concerned parties: The complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. So, does the ongoing flouting of U.S. and international sanctions indicate that Kim isn’t serious about denuclearization and never...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to announce new tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese imports as early as Monday, a senior administration official told Reuters on Saturday. The tariff level will probably be about 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter. This is below the 25 percent the administration said it was considering for this possible round of tariffs. Please see full article at the link.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for a second meeting and the White House is already looking at scheduling one, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday. The two leaders have been discussing North Korea’s nuclear program since their unprecedented June 12 summit which has been criticized for being short on concrete details about how and whether Kim is willing to give up on a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States. Trump told reporters on Friday that a personal letter from Kim was on the...

Donald Trump had to be tricked out of killing a U.S.-South Korean trade deal? He threatened to move a U.S. missile defense system from South Korea to Oregon? He ordered a plan for a pre-emptive attack on North Korea? These supposed moves by Trump, detailed in journalist Bob Woodward's new book, will cause bafflement and worry among government officials in Seoul. But, for many South Koreans, they just add more pieces of evidence to an established picture of an erratic U.S. leader who thinks little of an alliance forged in the turmoil of the Korean War and often described here...

North Korea held a military parade Sunday to mark the 70th anniversary of the country's founding, but held back on showcasing its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), believed to be capable of targeting the United States. The parade, which was considerably understated compared to previous years, comes against a background of stalled diplomatic talks with the US over the issue of denuclearization. Experts speculated before the event that North Korea may choose not to display the country's more advanced weaponry to avoid antagonizing US President Donald Trump.

The United States and North Korea returned to the negotiating table Friday, with generals from the two countries meeting to discuss the possible recovery of more remains from service members killed in the Korean War, an official said. It was the first known direct talks between the two sides since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang was canceled last month, although President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchanged messages this week through South Korean mediation. Friday’s U.S. delegation was led by Maj. Gen. Michael Minihan, chief of staff for the United Nations Command (UNC) and...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Friday he was ready to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports into the United States, threatening duties on another $267 billion of goods on top of $200 billion in imports primed for levies in coming days. The moves would sharply escalate Trump’s trade war with Beijing over his demands for major changes in economic, trade and technology policy. China has threatened retaliation, which could include action against U.S. companies operating there. Hours after a public comment period closed on his $200 billion China tariff list, Trump told...

Do you remember that old campaign adage, “you’ll get tired of winning”? It was a fun line to scream in the face of your liberal friends, yet I bet not so many Americans, even hard-core Trump fans, took it very seriously. However, not two years into his presidency, Trump is proving why is better to have a businessman as president, than a life-long politician or apparatchik who never made any money in the free market. Today’s news went under the radar, but this is as important as it gets. The thing about the Chinese is that they’re known for their...