NIKKEI Asian Review: Russia flaunts China ties with massive Far East war games

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-Relations/Russia-flaunts-China-ties-with-massive-Far-East-war-games Russia is gearing up to carry out its biggest war games in nearly four decades, inviting China to showcase their growing military cooperation amid the countries’ increasing friction with the U.S.   The Vostok-2018 exercises, slated for Sept. 11-15 in the Russian Far East, will be the country’s largest since Soviet-era games in 1981, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu…

Read More

The Telegraph: Japan and North Korea held secret meeting

Japan and North Korea held secret meeting as Shinzo Abe ‘loses trust’ in Donald Trump Japan held a “secret” meeting with North Korea in Vietnam in July without informing the United States, according to media reports. Talks were reportedly held between Shigeru Kitamura, head of Japan’s Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, and Kim Song-hye, a…

Read More

Freight Waves: Five years in, China’s Belt and Road looks like a giant debt trap

Five years in, China’s Belt and Road looks like a giant debt trap There’s mounting pushback among developing nations that China’s ambitious infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, is a debt trap. Countries using Chinese financing have seen public debt soar to unsustainable levels, and they’re increasingly worried about asset seizures. The Belt and…

Read More

Washington Post: Facebook blocks accounts of Myanmar’s top general, other military leaders

Facebook blocks accounts of Myanmar’s top general, other military leaders The social media giant took the rare step the same day that a scathing U.N. report called for war-crimes prosecutions of Myanmar’s top military brass. Without consulting the Myanmar government, Facebook on Monday removed Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s page from its platform, along with…

Read More

SCMP: Many Chinese companies ‘will go bankrupt’

Original Article: Many Chinese companies ‘will go bankrupt’, if US delivers on tariff threats, court newspaper warns In an opinion piece published on Wednesday by People’s Court Daily, Du Wanhua, deputy director of an advisory committee to the Supreme People’s Court, said that courts needed to be aware of the potential harm the tariff row could cause. “It’s…

Read More

Haaretz: Assad Preparing to Retake Southwest Syria

Original Article: Assad Preparing to Retake Southwest Syria and Israel Will Have to Decide Whether to Intervene The focus of this snapshot will be on the geopolitical side of the issue: mainly to do with what Israel want, and can do. Moscow wants an agreement under which some of the rebels would voluntarily evacuate parts of…

Read More

Business Insider: China tries to censor Vanuatu on “60 Minutes”

Original Article: How China tried to shut down Australian media coverage of its debt-trap diplomacy in the Pacific   This is astounding, to say the least. Five days before Australia’s “60 Minutes” program aired a report on China’s dept-trap diplomacy in the Pacific region, the show received an unusually aggressive phone call. “Take this down and take it…

Read More

SCMP: China is not a world leader in science and technology

Original Article: China must stop fooling itself it is a world leader in science and technology, magazine editor says Cover Photo from SCMP Liu Yadong, editor-in-chief of Science and Technology Daily. Photo from SCMP. “The large gap in science and technology between China and developed countries in the West, including the US, should be common knowledge, and…

Read More