Month: May 2026

Sun Tzu wrote that “fighting and winning all your battles is not the height of skill; subduing the enemy without fighting is the height of skill”. That maxim offers perhaps the clearest lens to interpret the logic of American grand strategy under US President Donald Trump. What many dismiss as inconsistency may conceal a patient strategic deception. The aim is not direct confrontation, but the quiet reshaping of the global economy in support of long-term US power. The US wants to improve its relative position vis-a-vis China for the long…

Zhang Nan, a Beijing-based researcher into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), said he was particularly fascinated by a nearly five-minute video, captured by a sky-facing US military infrared sensor in Florida in 2020. In the footage labelled “NAG UAP 1 Jun 20”, a humanoid-like shape hovered for a long time before abruptly moving to a distant location outside the frame. Are aliens among us? Michio Kaku on UFOs and China-US space race | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo “Assuming this wasn’t a sensor glitch and that we are looking at an…

Three more senior Chinese scientists have been disciplined by their universities after a high-profile blogger raised red flags about their research. Nankai University in Tianjin announced on Saturday that Chen Quan had been removed as dean of its College of Life Sciences. The university said that Chen, as a corresponding author, failed to properly oversee the quality and authenticity of experimental data in a paper published in Nature Cancer in 2024. Advertisement Meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou said Kang Tiebang had been removed as deputy director of the State…

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is visiting China this week, signalling a further easing in ties following a summit earlier this year. Cooper will meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng on Tuesday, Reuters quoted the British government as saying on Sunday. Among the topics on the agenda are the Strait of Hormuz, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the report said. Xi Jinping urges stable partnership in talks with UK leader Cooper will then head to the southern Chinese tech hub of…

Japan’s defence minister has rejected suggestions that his country is reviving its militaristic past, telling a regional security conference that changes to its defence strategy would allow it to play a new cooperative role. Shinjiro Koizumi also used his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Sunday to state that Tokyo opposed “unilateral changes to the status quo by force or coercion”, a comment believed to refer to Beijing’s maritime activities, including in the East and South China seas, and possible military action to reunite Taiwan with mainland China. “Every country…

In Cotonou, Benin’s largest city and economic capital located on the southern Atlantic coast, construction crews are busy building major projects, stretching from large-scale port upgrades to the asphalt-paving of the commercial hub’s main roads. At the Autonomous Port of Cotonou, China Harbour Engineering Company is advancing Terminal 5, a project that involves reclaiming land from the sea and building two 100,000-tonne general purpose berths. Beyond municipal upgrades, Chinese firms are building strategic corridors across the country. These include a 60km (37-mile) highway in the central region linking Savalou and…

The US budget submission for the next financial year includes US$1.85 billion for a study on outsourcing parts of the design and construction of frigates and destroyers, according to media reports last month. USNI News, the news service of the US Naval Institute, reported that the study would look at the feasibility of adopting or co-producing advanced hulls such as Japan’s Mogami-class and South Korea’s Daegu-class frigates to supplement the US Navy’s overstretched production lines. Advertisement This comes as Washington aims to accelerate naval shipbuilding to narrow the gap with…