Day: September 29, 2022

Advertisement To repeat a cliche, U.S. President Joe Biden has turned America’s decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity” over whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion into one of “strategic unambiguity.” He has said on several occasions that the U.S. would, in fact, militarily come to Taiwan’s defense. He was asked the same question earlier this month. He replied: “Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.” The German Marshall Fund’s latest Transatlantic Trends survey, released on Thursday, makes for depressing reading if you’re sitting…

“We know that our adversaries will use any means they can to close the gaps between our technological capabilities and theirs,” Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who is chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said on Thursday. “What we don’t know is to what degree US investments are helping them.” Photo: Bloomberg South China Morning Post

Give officials in Hebei province points for originality. To encourage locals to have more babies, they recently enlisted a troupe of women to shout at them. While banging pots and a drum they yelled out slogans such as, “Giving birth is an important part of life!” and “The three-child policy is good!” The latter refers to an official scheme which encourages women to have up to three children. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Listen to…

IN APRIL 2019 the Americans thought they were close to ending their trade war with China. They had a draft agreement that would oblige China to strengthen its intellectual property rights and buy more American crops, among other things. And they had confidence in their negotiating partner, Liu He, China’s “special envoy” (pictured). Fluent in English, educated at Harvard and committed to reform, he was “frankly, one of the most respected men anywhere in the world”, according to Donald Trump, then America’s president. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and…

Shunji Izutsu (right) chief of staff of the Japan Air Self-Defence Force, shakes hands with Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, chief of the German Air Force, at JASDF’s Hyakuri Air Base in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, on Wednesday. Photo: Kyodo South China Morning Post

As China enters its 33rd month of draconian pandemic controls, a growing number of citizens are discovering what life is like outside the law. Some of these lessons are grim. Local police departments and officials have responded to public weariness with “zero-covid” policies by emphasising the punishments that await rule-breakers. Almost every day a propaganda notice goes viral, for instance announcing someone’s detention for selling fake test certificates to long-distance lorry drivers, or for bypassing a checkpoint to go to work. A man from Shandong province is in custody after…