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Taipei, Taiwan:   New Taipei City will mobilize more than 1,800 people for its largest-ever disaster response drills on Thursday. Apart from it, the Min An 8 drills were also expected to see 200 vehicles, four helicopters and 20 drones participating in the event, which for the first time, will also include a simulation of disaster relief during war, CNA has reported. On Wednesday, the city's fire department said that there will first be a general indoor theoretical rehearsal during the morning, with the drills taking place in the afternoon, which will include disaster relief during peace and war-time, the mobilization of resources, and the emergency housing of refugees. Russia launched its military operations in Ukraine on February 24. In February, China's Foreign Mini...

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict disrupting supplies of oil, gas and wheat and compelling price rise across continents, international businesses are busy assessing the implications for global trade in a possible Taiwan conflict scenario. An authoritative current affairs website, neican.org, which specializes in China, predicts that if a China-Taiwan conflict were to ensue, “Asia-Pacific supply chains would enter a period of intense disruption and reconfiguration”. Both western and Asian analysts agree that while several possible scenarios exist for the Taiwan conflict to play out, the end result will be the same. It will “likely involve an economic or military blockade of Taiwan or its outlying islands”. The immediate impact of such a blockade will be that Taiwan may lose access to

Hong Kong: Koo Sze-yiu has built wooden coffins by hand having messages that denounced the communist party of China and he would often use them as props during protests in Hong Kong, The New York Times newspaper reported. On February 4, which was also the opening day of Beijing Winter Olympics, he planned to do the same thing by carrying a homemade wooden coffin to China’s Liaison Office in the city, but national security police raided his apartment and arrested Koo that day before any protest could take place, CNN reported. A Hong Kong court had sentenced him to nine months in jail under the so-called sedition law for planning to protest against the Olympics earlier this year. The friends of the Hong Kong activist feared that he could die in prison even while serving a sh

Beijing, China:  According to Taiwan’s defense ministry, the People’s Liberation Army conducted 555 sorties in the first six months of the year, of which 398 involved combat aircraft, compared with 187 in the same period last year. Defense analysts say the mainland’s forces are developing their ability to control the skies over a longer range as part of preparations for a possible conflict. China sent 29 warplanes into Taiwan’s ADIZ in late June this year, according to media reports, marking the third-largest fly-by in the country this year. The warplanes including 17 fighter jets, six bombers and other supporting aircraft, entered the island’s air defense identification zone, The Star newspaper reported citing the island’s defense ministry. While the fly-bys were general

There is no plausible explanation other than deliberate projection of military power for the recent, unexplained presence of China’s navy vessels in the sea close to the uninhabited Senkaku Islands near Japan. The two countries have a dispute over control of the islands for years now and China refuses arbitration and insists that the islands belong to it. Chinese vessels have now been spotted near the islands, including in the so-called contiguous zone outside Japanese waters, for 81 days in a row, according to the coast guard. Simultaneously, Japan's Defense Ministry said it spotted “at least two Chinese warships” and a supply ship in the Izu Islands, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Tokyo. One of those ships appeared to be the Lhasa, a Type 055 guided-missile des

A spotlight is on East China Sea’s Senkaku islands after recent military action by China to achieve its goal of grabbing the islands. The rocky, uninhabited Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan and known as the Diaoyus in China, has heightened the tension between the two countries. The  presence of immense deposits of oil and gas under the waters surrounding the islandsis the main reason behind China’s strategy to make territorial claims. Two Chinese coast guard vessels entered Japanese territorial waters close to the Senkaku Islands on July 4. It came aday after a Chinese naval ship was detected there, leaving the Japanese navy furious. Itis not the first time when China has shown its aggressive behaviour. It is 15th time in the last six months when China

President Xi Jinping wanted the world to believe that Hong Kong has “risen from the ashes”, but what everybody saw on July 1 was a once thriving island stranded in time, in a vice-like grip of Chinese security and counter-terrorism forces, looking more and more like the monotonous Mainland. Xi was in Hong Kong on July 1, to mark the 25th anniversary of the handover of the island by the UK. He tried to hard-sell a “patriotic and prosperous” Hong Kong to the foreign companies and the trading community, but there were hardly any takers. The President tried to convince the businesses that he was ushering in a new era of “stability”, but everybody appeared to be gauging the political risks of trading in Hong Kong. On the day Xi landed on the island, the security forces had turned it i

Beijing, China: China’s PLA air force sent two dozen aircraft into Taiwan’s air space, according to social media announcements by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry in Taipei out of which twenty-nine aircraft of nine different kinds participated in the drills, which included 17 fighter jets, 6 bomber planes, and an anti-submarine aircraft.The 29 aircraft that Taipei identified were Yun-9 communication countermeasure aircraft 1 sortie; Yun-8 reconnaissance aircraft 1 sortie; H-6 aircraft 6 sorties; One Y-20 Aerial Refueling craft; Air Police-500 aircraft 2 sorties; Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft 1 sortie; J-16 8 sorties; Sukai-30 aircraft 4 sorties; J-11 5 sorties.However, the Chinese sorties withdrew soon after Taiwan dispatched “air patrol forces to respond, broadcast expulsion, and monitor ant

Beijing, China:  China dreams to be super power of the world, but it is starting its domination with nearby island nations which somehow depends on it. China in order to control the economy of Taiwan has banned import of fish and pineapples. According to Hong Kong Post, China’s PLA air force sent two dozen aircraft into Taiwan’s air space, according to social media announcements by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry in Taipei out of which twenty-nine aircraft of nine different kinds participated in the drills, which included 17 fighter jets, 6 bomber planes, and an anti-submarine aircraft. The 29 aircraft that Taipei identified were Yun-9 communication countermeasure aircraft 1 sortie; Yun-8 reconnaissance aircraft 1 sortie; H-6 aircraft 6 sorties; One Y-20 Aerial Refueling craft;

Beijing, China: In order to cru Taiwan, China has put another ban after banning pineapples, it has not banned grouper fish which is why, island country is facing economic losses.Taiwan’s grouper industry is lucrative and China’s recent ban is going to strain Taipei’s economy. Be mindful of China’s growing appetite for live fish, Lin Chun-lai bought his grouper farm in southern Taiwan about a decade ago. After a few years, the former electrician made enough money to comfortably support his family of four. They even opened a small inn. However, things were about to get soar. China abruptly banned all imports of grouper from the island. It was an apparent attempt by Beijing at turning the economic screws on Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own territory. This s