With Kim Jong Un escalating nuclear threats from the North, South Korea has found a cost-effective solution: its homegrown fighter jets. The country unveiled its first domestically-produced supersonic fighter jet, the KF-21, also known as the Boramae, to the public at the Seoul Airbase on Tuesday, joining an elite group of nations to demonstrate such technology. The KF-21 could boost the allies’ deterrence capability against the likes of North Korea. The aircraft, introduced at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2023, was developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, and…
Day: October 16, 2023
Israel Ambassador: Hamas Used North Korean Weapons to Attack Israel
Israel’s ambassador to South Korea believes North Korean weapons are being used by Palestinian militant group Hamas to attack Israel, even as Pyongyang has denied the accusations that have surfaced online as groundless. Akiva Tor, the Israeli ambassador serving in South Korea since 2020, told VOA’s Korean Service on the phone from Seoul on Saturday that Hamas militants are using weapons manufactured by North Korea. “In Gaza, as it is the one which attacks us, they use North Korean weapons,” said Tor. “It could be that these North Korean weapons…
Putin Visits China as Moscow and Beijing Reaffirm Ties
When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia meets with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, during a visit to Beijing this week, both men will likely seek to demonstrate the strength of their “no limits” partnership in challenging the Western-dominated global order. The visit comes at a time of turmoil in the Middle East after Hamas’s attack on Israel this month, which has led to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and expectations of a ground invasion. Both Russia and China have refrained from following the lead of Western countries by condemning Hamas…
What is China’s Belt and Road Initiative and How Is It Changing?
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, founded the Belt and Road Initiative a decade ago to use the country’s economic might to enlarge its geopolitical heft and counter the influence of the United States and other industrialized democracies. China has since disbursed close to $1 trillion to mostly developing countries, largely in loans, to build power plants, roads, airports, telecommunications networks and other infrastructure. Mr. Xi has used China’s cash and infrastructure expertise to tie together countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Eastern and Southern Europe. Belt and…
Russian leader Putin arrives in China for belt and road forum
Russian President Vladimir Putin has landed in Beijing for this week’s Belt and Road Forum, state broadcaster CCTV has reported. African and Southeast Asian leaders will also be among representatives from more than 130 countries and 30 international organisations expected to gather for the two-day event beginning on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement. In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday morning, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “We are interested to seeing the 3rd international Belt and Road Forum be successful and we are…
Chinese satellite company tests data transfer to ground station mounted on vehicle
Jilin-based Chang Guang Satellite Technology has tested a transportable ground station in its latest space-to-ground ultra-high-speed laser communications trial in what it deems an important step towards the technology’s commercial application. CGST, which operates the world’s largest imaging satellite constellation Jilin-1, sent remote sensing images from one of its 108 Jilin-1 satellites in orbit to an optical telescope mounted on a vehicle at the speed of 10 gigabytes per second, the company’s official WeChat account said on Wednesday. The transportable station is compact, has a high bandwidth and can be…
Slowing Chinese EV demand drives down battery metal prices
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Prices for key battery materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel have fallen sharply this year as electric vehicle sales in China cool off and a surge in supply hits the market. Since the start of the year, lithium prices have fallen almost 70 per cent and nickel prices have dropped by 40 per cent, while the cobalt market is in a glut with prices hovering slightly above record lows,…
Weak Chinese EV demand drives down battery metal prices
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Prices for key battery materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel have fallen sharply this year as electric vehicle sales in China cool off and a surge in supply hits the market. Since the start of the year, lithium prices have fallen almost 70 per cent and nickel prices have dropped by 40 per cent, while the cobalt market is in a glut with prices hovering slightly above record lows,…
China food security: advanced rice thriving where most vegetation dies – the salt deserts of Xinjiang
On the rim of Xinjiang’s desert, in a region where the soil is so salty that most vegetation refuses to grow, China is touting rising outputs of salt-tolerant rice as further evidence that its food-security drive has taken root. Beijing expects rising yields of genetically modified crops, especially in remote and rural areas where arable soil is rare, to help serve as a long-term solution to ensuring that the nation’s 1.4 billion people are kept fed. After an on-site inspection on Friday, an official survey group said that the final…
Belt and Road Initiative: Is China’s trillion-dollar gamble to transform the world working?
With this new strategy, China has cut down financing. It has imposed limits on external lending by Chinese banks, and investment deals are now nearly 50% smaller than they were five years ago, according to a GFDC analysis. It has also moved away from being the only creditor in the BRI, and started a platform where other countries can lend money. BBC