‘An easy target,’ Toronto advocates link rise in hate speech to violence against unhoused community – NOW Toronto
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Far East Watch
Trump nixed $400 million in Taiwan military aid, pushing future arms sales– www.washingtonpost.com
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South Korean prosecutors seek arrest of ‘Moonies’ leader in bribery probe | Courts News– www.aljazeera.com
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South Korean prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for Han Hak-ja, leader of the Unification Church, over bribery allegations linked to a former first lady.
The request on Thursday came a day after Han was questioned over her alleged role in bribing former first lady Kim Keon-hee and conservative lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong.
The charges came amid a drive to investigate Kim and her husband, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was forced from office last year after imposing martial law.
“We have requested an arrest warrant for Han earlier today,” prosecutor Park Sang-jin said. “The charges against her include violation of political funds act, anti-graft law, incitement to destroy evidence and embezzlement.”
“We considered the risk of Han tampering with evidence to be very high, which led us to seek the warrant.”
China’s Young Consumers Set the Global Trend. What They’re Spending On Now. – Barron’s
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China’s defence minister urges greater unity to avoid ‘law of the jungle’ – The Straits Times
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Signposts Toward the Future of Indian-Chinese Relations– warontherocks.com
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On Aug. 31, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual summit in Tianjin — Modi’s first trip to China in seven years. The meeting highlighted improving relations between the two countries, following a period of intensified tensions during border clashes in 2020. This renewed engagement occurs at a time of unusually high U.S.–Indian tensions, raising concerns in Washington that New Delhi might be leaning more toward China. We asked three experts to identify key indicators that might signify the direction of Indian–Chinese relations over the next few
China accuses Philippines of ship collision near disputed shoal in South China Sea– www.cbsnews.com
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China’s coast guard accused a Philippine ship of deliberately ramming one of its vessels on Tuesday near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippines denied it, saying China’s forces used powerful water cannons that damaged its ship and injured a crew member.
A Chinese coast guard statement said more than 10 Philippine government ships coming from various directions entered the waters around the shoal, which is called Huangyan Island in Chinese. It said it deployed water cannons against the vessels.
The encounter came six days after China announced it was designating part of Scarborough Shoal as a national nature reserve. The Philippine government, which calls the shoal Bajo de Masinloc, filed a diplomatic protest.
China and the Philippines have clashed repeatedly around outcroppings in the South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. The two countries are among several that have competing claims to territory in the waters, which are of strategic importance and home to valuable fishing grounds.
The Philippine coast guard said two Chinese coast guard ships hit a Filipino fisheries vessel, the BRP Datu Gumbay Piang, with powerful water cannons for nearly 30 minutes “resulting in significant damage,” including in the captain’s cabin and the bridge. A glass window was shattered and injured a personnel while the deluge of water caused a short circuit that affected electrical outlets and five outdoor air-conditioning units, it said.
“War Without Harm”: China’s Hybrid Warfare Playbook Against Taiwan – Geopolitical Monitor
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The European Union confiscated a record number of Chinese containers. – Zamin.uz
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‘This Is a Targeted Arrest’: South Korean Pastor Hasn’t Been Seen Since Entering Police Station– www.cbn.com
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SEOUL – “If I am imprisoned, it will prove that Korea is no longer free.” Reverend Hyun-bo Son made that statement just before entering the police station for a pre-trial hearing on September 8th. He hasn’t been seen since.
Charges against Pastor Son include violating election laws—specifically, for interviewing a candidate on issues the government interpreted as illegal campaigning. Authorities cited “risk of flight and destroying evidence” as the reasons for his detention.
Chance Son says the family only learned of his father’s arrest through the press. Since then, they have not been allowed to speak to Pastor Son, which they say violates his rights.
He said, “To a senior pastor who has served the same church for over 30 years, faithfully ministering to his congregation and the community, the court’s claim of flight risk makes no sense. I believe this is clearly political retaliation and religious oppression targeting Korean churches.”
China Launches Coordinated Media Campaign to Promote New Global Governance Initiative in Africa – The China-Global South Project
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Censorship Smothers Criticism of Military Parade– chinadigitaltimes.net
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A host of measures intended to stifle dissent allowed Beijing’s military parade last week to take place without any major disruptions. The following is a summary of some of these examples of censorship and control.
Some of these measures were implemented before the parade began. A recent censorship directive, leaked online and later translated by CDT, advised cyber-regulators to remain vigilant against a long list of “ideological risks” related to the upcoming military parade and other events during the third quarter of the year. Last week, Laura Bicker at the BBC detailed how Beijing tightened control in the lead-up to the parade:
Airport security scanners have been installed in some office entrances. All drones are banned and international journalists have been visited at home, some on multiple occasions, to ensure they get the message.
Guards have been stationed 24 hours a day at the entrances to overpasses and bridges to prevent any protests, some of them in army uniforms.
[…] People living near Chang’an Avenue, which leads to Tiananmen square, were told to stay off their balconies to ensure the rehearsals could be held in secrecy. [Source]
China’s New Strategy and the Challenge to American Hegemony – Hasht-e Subh Daily
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For Xi’s China, power is priority; changing the world order comes later – Firstpost
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US probes malware email targeting trade talks with China: Report – Deccan Herald
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Recent reports are urging President Trump to recognize Somaliland as an independent country. During his press conference with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, where he discussed brokering their peace, a reporter also asked him about Somaliland. President Trump, positioning himself as a true dealmaker who brokers peace among longtime warring factions, has a significant opportunity to strengthen these fledgling nations.
East Turkistan is another country yearning for freedom, located to the east of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Currently occupied by the People’s Republic of China and labeled the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, most of the world has never heard of this country because of the Chinese government’s ethnic cleansing and propaganda war of suppression and secrecy.
However, most people have heard of the Uyghurs.
Months of protests in Serbia reached a new intensity Wednesday night as riot police intervened to separate rival demonstrations of anti-government protesters and supporters of President Aleksandar Vucic. The president once again accused unnamed foreign powers of orchestrating the protests, which first began after the deadly collapse of a subway station sparked accusations of widespread government corruption.
Supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) threw flares and firecrackers at anti-government protesters in Novi Sad on Wednesday evening, prompting police to intervene to end the standoff, a major escalation of nine-month-long protests in Serbia.
The student-led protests in Serbia first started in November after a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state infrastructure projects.
Protests have since drawn hundreds of thousands of people, shaking President Aleksandar Vucic’s firm grip on power. His supporters have recently started organising counter-demonstrations, fuelling fears of possible violence.
South Korea begins removing border propaganda speakers in conciliatory gesture toward North– www.independent.co.uk
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The speakers had previously been used to blast anti-North Korean propaganda across the border, but the South’s new liberal government halted the broadcasts in June in a conciliatory gesture as it looks to rebuild trust and revive dialogue with Pyongyang, which has largely cut off cooperation with the South in recent years.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the physical removal of the loudspeakers from the border was another “practical measure” aimed at easing tensions between the war-divided Koreas and that it does not affect the South’s military readiness.
Lee Kyung-ho, a spokesperson for the ministry, didn’t share specific details on how the removed loudspeakers will be stored or whether they could be quickly redeployed to the border if tensions flare again between the Koreas. There were no discussions between the two militaries ahead of the South’s decision to remove the speakers, Lee said during a briefing.
North Korea, which is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of its authoritarian leadership and its third-generation ruler, Kim Jong Un, didn’t immediately comment on the South Korean step.
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Over the past two decades, the posture of the United States towards China has evolved from economic cooperation to outright antagonism. US media outlets and politicians have engaged in persistent anti-China rhetoric, while the US government has imposed trade restrictions and sanctions on China and pursued military build-up close to Chinese territory. Washington wants people to believe that China poses a threat.
China’s rise indeed threatens US interests, but not in the way the US political elite seeks to frame it.
The US relationship with China needs to be understood in the context of the capitalist world system. Capital accumulation in the core states, often glossed as the “Global North”, depends on cheap labour and cheap resources from the periphery and semi-periphery, the so-called “Global South”.
This arrangement is crucial to ensuring high profits for the multinational firms that dominate global supply chains. The systematic price disparity between the core and periphery also enables the core to achieve a large net-appropriation of value from the periphery through unequal exchange in international trade.
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In a significant development in the Indo-Pacific and and a matter of concern for India, US and East Asian Countries, China has intensified its maritime military capabilities by deploying its largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, Fujian, into the sea. As per media reports, the Fujian aircraft carrier is not only China’s most advanced but also its first fully domestically designed flat-deck supercarrier equipped with electromagnetic catapults. Here are all the details you need to know about the Fujian advanced aircraft carrier.
China’s Fujian aircraft carrier: Why India should be cautious?
Reportedly similar to the US Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class, the deployment of the aircraft carrier marks a significant step in Beijing’s naval modernization and signals its growing strategic ambitions from the Taiwan Strait to the Indian Ocean.
Why China’s Fujian aircraft carrier is dangerous?
As per media reports, the Fujian aircraft carrier was first deployed for sea trials in May 2024 and is expected to join service by the end of 2025. More importantly, the aircraft carrier has been equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS), making China the only country in the world after US to use an electromagnetic catapult system (EMALS) to land fighter jets on a carrier.
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The sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has rejected diplomatic talks with South Korea’s new liberal leader.
“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither the reason to meet nor the issue to be discussed with the [Republic of Korea],” Kim Yo Jong, who speaks on behalf of her brother, said in a statement Monday.
Since taking office in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, has expressed a desire to improve relations with North Korea. In a gesture of goodwill, the new South Korean president has stopped loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and has also ended the dropping of leaflets by balloon into North Korea. But Kim Yo Jong says the actions don’t change the relationship between the neighboring countries.
Kim Yo Jong called the end of the “propaganda broadcasting” just “a reversible turning back of what they should not have done in the first place,” adding that because of this, the move “is not the work worthy of appreciation.”
Kim Yo Jong stressed that the relationship between North and South Korea has not changed even though a new president is in power, calling South Korea the “enemy.”
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During a June 17 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Steve Koehler declared that despite an ongoing campaign of intimidation against its smaller neighbors in the South China Sea, “China’s pressure is not working well. It has failed to intimidate Southeast Asian claimants and make them surrender their sovereign rights.”
Koehler detailed examples of Chinese harassment and violence over the last year against Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and especially the Philippines, but noted that in each case, the Southeast Asian states have refused to back down. The admiral echoed this assessment the following month in a speech in Manila on the anniversary of the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral victory in The Hague, which ruled most of Beijing’s maritime claims in the South China Sea illegal.
That China is faltering might surprise casual observers of the South China Sea disputes, but it matches the available evidence. China’s efforts to establish control over the sea have plateaued over the last four years. That came after nearly a decade of steady gains. The strategy that won Beijing control over much of the body of water, despite the illegality of its claims, was centered on a campaign of intimidation and non-lethal force, often dubbed “gray zone” coercion. That campaign is no longer working but the Xi Jinping regime is unwilling, and likely unable, to accept that reality and seek compromise with its Southeast Asian neighbors. The result is a dangerous cycle of brinksmanship, but one that is not delivering results for Beijing. To help Southeast Asian partners, especially the Philippines, remain resilient and deter Beijing from military escalation, the United States should follow through with plans to strengthen force posture and support the military modernization of partners in the region.
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As Taiwan concluded its largest-ever Han Kuang military exercise, annual war games designed to test the island’s ability to repel a Chinese invasion, China simultaneously launched a series of back-to-back drills, overtly simulating an attack and applying strategic pressure. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command issued daily updates detailing synchronized maneuvers designed to mirror and counter Taiwan’s activities.
The 2025 Han Kuang exercise, held from July 9 to 18, was the longest and most comprehensive iteration since its inception in 1984. It marked a significant shift toward whole-of-society defense, emphasizing joint combat operations and responses to “grey zone” threats. The drills featured over 22,000 reservists and incorporated both domestically developed and U.S.-supplied weapons, including Sky Sword II missiles, Abrams M1A2T tanks, and HIMARS rocket systems. For the first time, Han Kuang was paired with the Urban Resilience Exercises, a multi-month campaign held from April through July to test Taiwan’s ability to withstand a prolonged conflict through full societal participation.
The computer-aided phase of the drill was extended from 8 to 14 days, while the live-fire segment doubled from 5 to 10. Key focus areas included electronic warfare, rapid mobilization, integrated air and missile defense, maritime security, and ground operations. The traditionally scripted exercises were replaced with 24/7 unscripted scenarios simulating combat in urban areas, civil-military coordination, and mass evacuation drills in real-world locations such as hypermarkets.
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Last month, the Department of Justice charged two Chinese nationals for smuggling a scientifically classified potential agroterrorism fungus into the United States. They were allegedly receiving funding from China to research the pathogen for potential future attacks, highlighting the dangers China could pose to the U.S. food supply in the future at a time it has already effectively infiltrated American agriculture through land acquisition.
China’s acquisition of U.S. land is a well-documented national security threat, especially as it continues to purchase land in suspicious proximity to U.S. military bases. This strategic investment by China has rapidly developed, with China only owning approximately 13,720 acres in 2010 growing to the 277,336 acres it owned as of Dec. 2023.
Despite the number of acres reported in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act Dec. 2023 report, this data “should be interpreted as a minimum.” The data disclosed to the USDA is collected through voluntary reporting. This creates gaps in the database, with 3.1 million acres unaccounted for. Additionally, there is a caveat in the reporting, as entities can list “no predominant country” in their filing. Roughly 2.3 million acres account for no foreign investor and no predominant country listed. The number of Chinese-controlled acreage is highly likely to be far larger than reported.