A cooperation agreement by the Philippines, the United States and Japan will change the dynamic in the South China Sea and the region, the Philippine president has said, while seeking to assure China it was not a target. “I think the trilateral agreement is extremely important,” Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference in Washington on Friday, a day after meeting President Joe Biden and the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, in the nations’ first trilateral summit. “It is going to change the dynamic, the dynamic that we see in…
Tag: US foreign policy
Japanese leader asks US to overcome ‘self-doubt’ about global leadership
Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday called on Americans to overcome their “self-doubt” as he offered a paean to US global leadership before a bitterly divided Congress. Warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan – stripped of its right to a military after the second world war – was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States. “As we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should…
The new world disorder: how the Gaza war disrupted international relations
Not long ago a picture circulated from inside Gaza showing smoke billowing from the explosion of a US-supplied bomb, and discernible in the background was the outline of eight black parachutes dropping US aid in precisely the same neighbourhood. It was suggested that the picture would make an ideal cover for any book about the confused world disorder that the six-month war in Gaza have spawned – a disorder that as yet has no dominant player, value system or functioning institutions. The great powers compete, coexist or confront one another…
Biden and Xi seek to manage tensions in phone call as US officials head to China
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping have clashed in a telephone call about Taiwan and US trade restrictions on technology, but sought to manage their tensions, as two top US officials prepare to visit Beijing. The nearly two-hour telephone conversation on Tuesday was the two leaders’ first direct interaction since a summit in November in California that saw a marked thaw in tone, if not the long-term rivalry, between the world’s two largest economies. The treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, will leave Wednesday and visit both Guangzhou, the southern city emblematic of…
China cyber-attacks explained: who is behind the hacking operation against the US and UK?
The US and UK have imposed sanctions on individuals and groups that they say targeted politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing in an extensive cyber espionage campaign – allegedly operated by an arm of China’s ministry of state security. The scale of the operation was revealed on Monday, although some of the attacks have been previously reported on. On Tuesday, New Zealand blamed “state-sponsored” Chinese hackers for a 2021 cyber-attack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems. Who is behind the cyber-attacks? Both the UK and US point the finger at…
US resolution on Gaza ceasefire vetoed at UN by Russia and China
A US resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal has been vetoed by Russia and China in the UN security council, extending a five-month impasse in the international body over the Israel-Hamas war which has killed more than 32,000 people. Eleven council members voted for the resolution on Friday morning; Russia, China and Algeria voted against it and Guyana abstained. As permanent security council members the Russian and Chinese votes counted as vetoes. It was unclear on Friday morning whether there would be a further vote…
US faces ‘increasingly fragile world order’ amid Russia and China threat
US intelligence agencies have said the country faces an “increasingly fragile world order,” strained by great power competition, transnational challenges and regional conflicts, in a report released as agency leaders testified in the Senate. “An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as US primacy within it,” the agencies said in their 2024 Annual Threat Assessment. The report largely focused on threats from China and Russia, the greatest rivals…
‘A 1939 moment’: Jim Sciutto on Russia, China and the threat of war
At CNN in Washington, Jim Sciutto’s dimly lit office is both man cave and shrine to a foreign correspondent who has reported from more than 50 countries. A typewriter he bought on Portobello Road during a decade in London. Photos he took in Afghanistan and Ukraine. A Vietnamese newspaper account of the time he rode over the South China Sea on a US spy plane. A corked bottle of water from his trip to the North Pole in a US nuclear submarine. A fragment of the Black Hawk helicopter destroyed…
China claims US ‘obsessed’ with suppressing Beijing – video
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has accused the US of imposing sanctions on Chinese companies to a ‘bewildering’ and ‘unfathomable’ level. Wang said the relationship between China and the US was ‘critical’ but that it was its relationship with Russia that would be deepened and strengthened in the coming months. He went on to accuse the US of failing to fulfil promises and said it was ‘obsessed’ with suppressing China as a global power. Relations between the US and China have thawed slightly since Xi Jinping met Joe Biden in…
China pledges to deepen Russia ties and criticises US ‘obsession’ with suppressing Beijing
China’s top foreign affairs official has accused the US of trying to suppress China and has vowed to deepen relations with Russia, as Beijing continues to assert the importance of what it calls a “multipolar” world order. Foreign minister Wang Yi accused the US of imposing sanctions on Chinese companies to a “bewildering” and “unfathomable” level, referencing Beijing’s opposition to “unilateralism and protectionism”, complaints that have become buzzwords in China’s official statements of late. Speaking on Thursday, Wang said the relationship between China and the US was “critical” but that…