Day: August 11, 2022

Your Friday Briefing: U.S. to Unseal Trump Warrant

Chin@Strategy

Good morning. We’re covering moves by the U.S. to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, Russia’s preparation for possible show trials and Taiwan’s undeterred diplomacy. U.S. to unseal the Trump warrant Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, moved to unseal the warrant authorizing the F.B.I. search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s residence in Florida. Garland said he personally approved the decision to seek the warrant. Garland’s statement followed revelations that Trump received a subpoena for documents this spring, months before the F.B.I. search on Monday. It also came a…

US and allies should move to protect ‘freedom of navigation’, says Taiwan envoy

Chin@Strategy

The US and its allies should jointly respond to China’s live ammunition drills designed to intimidate Taiwan by holding “freedom of navigation” operations in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei’s official representative to the UK has said. In an interview with the Guardian, Kelly Wu-Chiao Hsieh also called on the UK to uphold the principles of rules-based international order and forge closer trade and security investment relations with Taiwan. He welcomed the decision of the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to condemn the unprecedented Chinese military exercises in the wake of the visit…

How the crisis over Taiwan will change US-China relations

Chin@Strategy

In january 1950, three months after the Communist victory in China’s civil war, President Harry Truman issued a statement. America, he declared, would not intervene militarily to help China’s defeated Nationalists, who had fled to the island of Taiwan. Mao Zedong was already preparing an invasion and probably would have succeeded had the Korean war not erupted in June that year. The conflict prompted Truman to change tack, backing South Korea and ordering the Seventh Fleet to defend Taiwan in a bid to halt the spread of communism in Asia.…

Xi, Henan, and China’s Growing Financial Crisis

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement In July, videos of tanks supposedly rolling onto the streets of Henan circulated online, with many posts drawing comparisons to the Tiananmen Square Massacre. While the video was later refuted – the Associated Press confirmed the tanks were taking part in a military exercise in another city more than 400 kilometers away – the recent incident put the current Chinese banking crisis under the spotlight. Protesters had indeed gathered in Henan after being unable to access their savings and faced violent retaliation from police. As the 20th National Congress…

China Vows More Drills, but Taiwan Is Undeterred

Chin@Strategy

If China’s show of force over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip was meant as a deterrent, it has not had the intended effect in Taiwan, where the military drills have reinforced a careful two-pronged strategy of shoring up international support, while avoiding overt confrontation. The exercises, which encircled the self-ruled island and simulated a blockade, appear instead to have hardened the Taiwanese belief in the value of the island’s diplomatic, economic and military maneuverings to stake out a middle ground in the big-power standoff between China and the United States. Under…

Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit Saudi Arabia next week

Chin@Strategy

The Chinese president Xi Jinping will visit Saudi Arabia next week, where plans are under way for a gala reception to match that given to Donald Trump on his first trip abroad as president. The welcome being prepared for the Chinese leader is in stark contrast with that afforded to Joe Biden in June, when the US president received a low-key reception, reflecting strained ties between the two countries and personal distaste between Biden and the de facto Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman. Xi, however, is instead expected to receive…