Month: January 2026

Taiwan’s absence from the United States’ newly released 2026 National Defence Strategy has fuelled fresh debate on the island over whether Washington is deliberately sidestepping the island as it prioritises bigger interests with Beijing. The omission is in sharp contrast with earlier editions of the Pentagon’s quadrennial flagship strategy, which had explicitly referred to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and pledged support for the island’s asymmetric defence. The 2022 iteration mentioned the island eight times and described mainland China as launching “increasingly provocative rhetoric and coercive actions” that “threatened stability” and…

In the first few weeks of this year alone, the leaders of two of the five “eyes” in the world’s oldest intelligence-sharing alliance signalled they were ready to rethink their relationship with China. As Western economies grapple with the unpredictability and at times hostility of the White House’s policies, Canada and Britain have both sought to find a new way to work with China – a country that the Five Eyes has accused of espionage. Advertisement The shift is a “tough balancing act” for the alliance’s non-US members – which…

The US is poised to avoid a major shutdown after senators agreed on Friday to separate a controversial bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a package that also includes funding for the State Department and the Pentagon. The House, which is out of session this week, will still need to approve the package before it can be signed into law, meaning that there will be at least a brief funding lapse after current funding expires on Friday. But the chamber is expected to move on the legislation…

China is expected to look for ways to protect its maritime interests in the face of increasingly assertive efforts by the United States to seize foreign ships it accuses of breaching sanctions on countries such as Iran and Venezuela. In November, a cargo ship travelling to Iran from China was reportedly raided by a US special operations team in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka and its cargo of dual military-civilian use goods confiscated. It was the first known US interception of outbound cargo from China in years. Advertisement Then…

Washington on Friday welcomed a Panamanian court ruling cancelling a contract held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings to operate two ports along the Panama Canal, a decision seen as a boost to the United States’ efforts to counter Chinese influence in the western hemisphere. The reaction came as Panama’s government sought to reassure workers and investors on the ground that trade and jobs would not be affected. “The United States is encouraged by the recent Panamanian Supreme Court’s decision to rule port concessions to China unconstitutional,”…