China US relations - G20: Following a three hour meeting with Xi, Biden says he does'nt believe China will invade Taiwan

Speaking after they met on Monday at a luxury resort hotel in Bali, Indonesia, where they are attending the G20 summit, Biden said he and the Chinese leader had been “candid and clear” with each other on subjects ranging from Taiwan to trade.

The meeting, which lasted more than three hours, was seen as an attempt to reduce tensions that have brought US-China relations to their lowest ebb in decades.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com

Taiwan: US greenlights $1.1 billion arms deal with Taiwan

The United States on Friday announced a potential $1.1 billion (€1.1 billion) arms sale to Taiwan, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The State Department said the arms package aims to boost Taiwan's defense capabilities and includes $355 million for Harpoon air-to-sea missiles and $85 million for Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. 

An amount of $655 million would go toward a surveillance radar system to help Taiwan track incoming missiles.

Read more at:US greenlights $1.1 billion arms deal with Taiwan | News | DW | 02.09.2022

China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan

China says it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the EU criticising Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

Read more at: China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan

Taiwan: China's Xi warns Biden over Taiwan, calls for cooperation

President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in China’s dealings with Taiwan during a phone call with his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, that gave no indication of progress on trade, technology or other irritants, including Beijing’s opposition to a top American lawmaker’s possible visit to the island that the mainland claims as its own territory.

Xi also warned against splitting the world’s two biggest economies, according to a Chinese government summary of Thursday’s unusually lengthy, three-hour call. Businesspeople and economists warn such a change, brought on by Chinese industrial policy and U.S. curbs on technology exports, might hurt the global economy by slowing innovation and increasing costs.

Meanwhile, Xi and Biden are looking at the possibility of meeting in person, according to a U.S. official who declined to be identified further. Xi has been invited to Indonesia in November for a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies, making it a potential location for a face-to-face meeting.

Read more at: China's Xi warns Biden over Taiwan, calls for cooperation - ABC News

China -US Relations: Can the US Deter a Taiwan Invasion? – by David Gitter

As the world comes to grips with Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the questions surrounding why Western deterrence has seemingly failed to prevent such a situation will be hotly debated. But beyond the implications for the United States and Europe, perhaps the most common analysis being made, rightly or not, compares Russia President Vladimir Putin’s designs on Ukraine with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s machinations regarding Taiwan (formally the Republic of China, or ROC), a de facto independent state that Beijing claims to be part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Some observers have opined that a weak response by the United States and its allies in Europe will embolden Xi to undertake a military takeover of the island. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressed this line of thinking in an interview with CNN when she stated, “As it relates to Taiwan and China, we are committed to protecting the security and supporting the security of the people of Taiwan… if China is making efforts toward Taiwan because of what they see happening in Ukraine, these are two different types of situations.”

Briefly explained, the roots of strategic ambiguity are found in the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which states that the United States will maintain the capacity to defend Taiwan but does not state whether or not the United States would actually militarily intervene if the PRC attacked – ultimately this remains a U.S. presidential decision. Strategic ambiguity has allowed the United States to protect its normalized relations with China from being completely derailed by a Taiwan-U.S. alliance while still threatening to quash a Chinese cross-strait attack. It has also helped prevent Taiwan’s more independence-leaning leaders from assuming they had a blank check from Washington to declare de jure independence, which would risk provoking a China-U.S. war in the process.

Read more at:" Can the US Deter a Taiwan Invasion? – The Diplomat

Global Hot Points: Taiwan watching Ukraine crisis with 'concern and anxiety,' says diplomat - by Dan De Luce and Ken Dilanian

Taiwan is watching events in Ukraine with "much concern and anxiety" but plans to make any possible Chinese military attack on Taiwan "too painful" to consider, Taipei's representative in Washington, Bi-khim Hsiao, said in an interview.

Hsiao made the comments as Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned during a trip to Asia over the weekend that other countries were monitoring the Ukraine crisis closely and that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could have repercussions for the Pacific region.

Read more at: Taiwan watching Ukraine crisis with 'concern and anxiety,' says diplomat

US difficult diplomatic choices: The US Faces Hard Choices on Strategic Ambiguity Over Ukraine, Taiwan - by Jeffrey Mankoff

* Russian and Chinese pressure has raised questions about US willingness to defend Ukraine and Taiwan.

* "Strategic ambiguity" still serves a deterrent function, but the value of that deterrent is diminishing.

* As great-power competition intensifies, the US will have to make hard choices about what it will do to defend some partners.

Russia's military buildup against Ukraine and China's aggressive posture toward Taiwan suggest the US is approaching an inflection point when it will need to make hard choices about how far it will go to support beleaguered partners.

Read more at: The US Faces Hard Choices on Strategic Ambiguity Over Ukraine, Taiwan

US between a stone and a hard rock: Putin and Xi Working Together to Force Biden into a Two-Front Crisis He Can't Win - by Tom O'Connor

As crises mount over Ukraine and Taiwan, an unprecedented bond between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping has allowed the United States' two top rivals to force President Joe Biden into a two-front crisis that could spread his administration too thin to respond adequately to either.

And should a shooting war erupt, there's little guarantee the U.S. would come out on top.

"I don't think the United States is prepared to go to war in Ukraine. I don't think the United States is prepared to go to war over Taiwan," Lyle Goldstein, an expert on China and Russia who served for 20 years as a research professor at the Naval War College up until October and now holds the position of director of Asia engagement at the Defense Priorities think tank, told Newsweek.

Read more at: Putin and Xi Working Together to Force Biden into a Two-Front Crisis He Can't Win

China-Russian Naval Cooperation: Chinese warships on first ever joint patrol mission in Pacific

Russian and Chinese navy vessels have completed their first joint patrol mission in the Pacific Ocean, covering a distance of over 1,700 nautical miles (around 3,100km) in a week, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said.

The landmark mission was aimed at maintaining stability in the Pacific region and safeguarding the maritime infrastructure of the two nations, the ministry said. It started last Sunday and successfully concluded on Saturday.

During the patrol, the Russian and Chinese ships sailed through the Tsugaru Strait between Japan's islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. The Japanese Navy, which monitored their actions, said that the passage was carried out in line with international law and that the country’s territorial waters weren't violated.

The Russian and Chinese military sailors also worked out joint tactical maneuvering and performed other training exercises along their route.

Read more at: WATCH Russian & Chinese warships on first ever joint patrol mission in Pacific — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

China - USA relations re: Taiwan : China sends warplanes toward Taiwan for 2nd straight day

China flew more than 30 military planes toward Taiwan on Saturday, the second large display of force in as many days.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said 39 aircraft entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone in two sorties, one during the day and one at night. That followed a similar pattern on Friday, when 38 planes flew into the area south of the self-governing island.

Read more at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-taiwan-1.6198080

China-US Relations: China tells US ′not to play with fire′ over Taiwan

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry urged the United States "not to play with fire on the Taiwan issue, and immediately stop any increase in official contacts with Taiwan" on Tuesday.

Zhao Lijian told reporters that the US must "not send the wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces so as not to subversively influence and damage Sino-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

This follows the US State Department's decision on Friday to deepen relations with self-ruled Taiwan as China increases military activity around the island, including almost daily air force incursions into its air-defense zone.

Read more at: China tells US ′not to play with fire′ over Taiwan | News | DW | 13.04.2021

Taiwan: China Says It Will Use Military Force to Take Control of Taiwan If Diplomacy Fails

Chinese general has warned that Beijing will not rule out the use of force to take control of Taiwan, as the Chinese Communist Party closed its annual National People's Congress in Beijing.

Read more at: China Says It Will Use Military Force to Take Control of Taiwan If Diplomacy Fails

The Netherlands: Could the 'liberal' Dutch have learned from Taiwan's approach to coronavirus?

The whole world has been struggling to contain the coronavirus and “flatten the curve”, but Taiwan has had no curve. Out of a population of 24 million, only 440 people have tested positive for Covid-19, and there have been just seven deaths.Compare that with the Netherlands: while it is similar in size to Taiwan with a population of 17 million, well over 5,000 lives have been lost to the virus.

What has made the difference? Clearly, the Netherlandsis not an island that could cut itself off from the rest of world, lockdown completely and thus contain the disease. Taiwan is – but Taiwan didn’t do that either.

Public spaces in Taiwan, restaurants, shops and schools, have all remained open since the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. Life in Taiwan hascontinued pretty much the same as before. What Taiwan did however, wasopt for a complex tradeoff involving viruscontainment strategies and information gathering, while balancing individual autonomy with trust and control.

Read more at:
Could the 'liberal' Dutch have learned from Taiwan's approach to coronavirus? | | Opinion | The Guardian

China Says Donald Trump Could ‘Seriously Affect Peace’ If He Moves Toward Recognizing Taiwan - by Christopher Bodeen

Any change in U.S. policy favoring formal recognition of Taiwan will “seriously” damage peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and undermine relations between Beijing and Washington, a Chinese government spokesman said Wednesday.

The comments from the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office follow President-elect Donald Trump’s remarks over the weekend that he didn’t feel “bound by a one-China policy” unless the U.S. could gain benefits from China in trade and other areas.

Read moe: China Says Donald Trump Could ‘Seriously Affect Peace’ If He Moves Toward Recognizing Taiwan | TIME

Oscars pick 9 movies for foreign film shortlist

Award-winning Iranian film "A Separation" was among nine movies on the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign language film nominations announced on Wednesday.

"A Separation," which tells the story of a couple struggling with the decision of whether to leave their country, has won a slew of awards for the year's best foreign language film, including the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.

Films from Germany, Denmark, Morocco, Taiwan, Poland, Israel, Belgium, Canada, and Award-winning Iranian film "A Separation" were among nine movies on the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign language film nominations announced on Wednesday.

"A Separation," which tells the story of a couple struggling with the decision of whether to leave their country, has won a slew of awards for the year's best foreign language film, including the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.

For more: Oscars pick 9 movies for foreign film shortlist - chicagotribune.com