Day: May 26, 2026

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and its strike group are holding a live-fire exercise in the Pacific east of the Philippines, following one of its longest deployments in the South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Kuznetsov-class carrier, along with at least four escorts, was spotted on Monday about 880km (547 miles) southwest of Okinotorishima, Japan’s southernmost point, according to a statement from the Japanese defence ministry. On Tuesday, carrier-based fighter aircraft and other assets were observed conducting take-off and landing exercises from the Liaoning, the statement added. Advertisement The…

The US military scaled back and kept a low profile for its transits through the Taiwan Strait last year in contrast with increased passage by its allies, according to a report released by a leading Chinese think tank. In 2025, the remaining Five Eyes countries – Australia, Canada, Britain and New Zealand – deployed six warships to conduct five Taiwan Strait transits, all of which were accompanied by official public statements, according to a report released on Tuesday by the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative. The report said…

Panama’s foreign minister used a United Nations Security Council debate on Tuesday to call for dialogue over confrontation, saying his country was “born to connect oceans, continents, cultures and economies” in a speech delivered before an assembly chaired by China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, as the two countries navigate their worst bilateral crisis since establishing ties in 2017. China holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in May and convened a high-level open debate on Tuesday to uphold the UN Charter and strengthen the multilateral system, which Wang said…

The US government will shortly issue a formal call for public comment on which Chinese products should qualify for lower tariffs under a newly established bilateral “Board of Trade”, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced on Tuesday. “We’ll be putting out a Federal Register notice shortly,” Greer told a Council on Foreign Relations gathering in Washington. “I’ve seen it, I’ve looked at it, I’ve redlined it personally, and it will be setting up what we’re going to do on the US side, which in the first instance is to put…

Dandong, the Chinese border city that faces North Korea across the Yalu River, is a barometer of ties between Beijing and Pyongyang. While lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic led North Korea to sink into even greater isolation than usual, the resumption of cross-border rail links in recent months has triggered a pickup in activity, with freight volumes rising and local travel agencies reporting a steady stream of inquiries. A man holds a banner reading “Beijing-Pyongyang” in front of a train bound for Pyongyang at Beijing Railway Station on March 12.…

The US is preparing offensive weapons to blind China’s military satellites in any future conflict, even as the two sides lack reliable channels to manage risks in an increasingly crowded orbit, defence analysts said on Tuesday. Kari Bingen, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a former US deputy under secretary of defence for intelligence, said that Washington was openly debating how to “hold at risk” the satellites that underpin Chinese targeting of American forces in any Indo-Pacific conflict. “We’re now…

When Washington, Beijing and Moscow begin to treat one another as bargaining partners again, northeast Asia feels the pressure. Taiwan, Korea, sanctions, energy routes, nuclear risks and missile defence are no longer separate theatres. They increasingly belong to one strategic conversation between the US, China and Russia. Northeast Asia itself is already being reorganised through three trilateral structures with different purposes, degrees of institutionalisation and strategic effects. Thus the region is now shaped by four layers of trilateralism: an emerging US-China-Russia great-power management; the US-Japan-South Korea deterrence partnership; China-Japan-South Korea…