Southeast Asia Watch

Chinese, Russian and Iranian warships arrive in South Africa for naval drills as tensions run high– abcnews.go.com

pgnewser January 11, 2026 0

Blurb:

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Chinese, Russian and Iranian warships arrived in South African waters for a week of naval drills starting Friday off the coast of Cape Town as geopolitical tensions run high over the United States’ intervention in Venezuela and its move to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

The Chinese-led drills were organized last year under the BRICS bloc of developing nations and South Africa’s armed forces said they will bring members of the bloc together to practice maritime safety and anti-piracy operations and “deepen cooperation.”

China, Russia and South Africa are longtime members of BRICS, while Iran joined the group in 2024.

The Iranian navy was taking part in the drills while protests grow back home against the Islamic Republic’s leadership.

It was not immediately clear if other countries from the BRICS group — which also includes Brazil, India and the United Arab Emirates among others — would take part in the drills. A spokesperson for the South African armed forces said he wasn’t yet able to confirm all the countries participating in the drills, which are due to run until next Friday.

China’s Military Advancing Amid Churn– warontherocks.com

pgnewser January 11, 2026 0

Blurb:

Simultaneous disruption and progress, with a relentless Taiwan-focused capability development deadline.

That’s the overriding theme of the 25th edition of the Department of Defense’s China Military Power Report, released on Dec. 23, 2025. Despite extensive leadership purges and ongoing disciplinary investigations across China’s military and defense industry, the 2025 report concludes that China continues to make progress toward General Secretary Xi Jinping’s 2027 “Centennial Military Building Goal” and associated warfighting capabilities against Taiwan.

The report shows China’s military undergoing simultaneous disruption and advancement, with leadership purges and procurement-related investigations generating short-term turbulence even as Xi’s armed forces surge forward.

Chinese researchers develop high-voltage sodium–sulfur battery that could challenge lithium batteries– www.digitaltrends.com

pgnewser January 11, 2026 0

Blurb:

A team of researchers in China has just pulled the curtain back on a new sodium-sulfur battery design that could fundamentally change the math on energy storage. By leaning into the very chemistry that has historically made sulfur a headache for engineers, they have managed to build a cell that is incredibly cheap to make but still packs a massive energy punch.

The design, which is currently being tested in the lab, uses dirt-cheap ingredients: sulfur, sodium, aluminum, and a chlorine-based electrolyte. In early trials, the battery hit energy densities over 2,000 watt-hours per kilogram – a figure that blows today’s sodium-ion batteries out of the water and even gives top-tier lithium cells a run for their money.

‘Only A Little Over 100’: Chinese Billionaire Started US-Born Baby Empire Using US Surrogates– dailycaller.com

pgnewser December 17, 2025 0

Blurb:

A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S. surrogates to have children on American soil, taking advantage of America’s largely unregulated market and birthright citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

In one such case, Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo has sought parental rights for at least four unborn children in Los Angeles, having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children, according to the WSJ. The trend coincides with intensifying debates over the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, a policy the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret.

Jimmy Lai’s daughter: ‘My dad is shrinking to nothing. If China fails to act, he’ll be a martyr.’– www.lifesitenews.com

pgnewser December 16, 2025 0

Blurb:

The daughter of pro-democracy activist, businessman, former newspaper owner, and Catholic convert Jimmy Lai has spoken out for the first time since her father’s incarceration five years ago as his trial under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law (NSL) continues to plod along. 

In an EWTN video interview and in a Washington Post op-ed, Clarie Lai says that her father, who just turned 78 years old, is languishing in prison, “shrinking to nothing. If China fails to act, he’ll be a martyr.”

“My father is suffering from rapidly deteriorating health,” Claire wrote in the Post. “He has diabetes and hypertension, his hearing and vision are failing, he has suffered from months-long infections and is in constant pain that sometimes leaves him struggling even to stand up. But the most visible and alarming sign of his plight is severe weight loss.”

Senate Investigates Chinese Opioid Trade in Latin America as Democrats Push Drug Boat Strikes Hoax– www.breitbart.com

pgnewser December 12, 2025 0

Blurb:

The Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control holds a hearing on Chinese drug trafficking through Latin America to the United States on Tuesday, December 9.

The hearing seeks to “uncover how the Chinese mafia drives synthetic opioid trafficking to the United States in the context of increased Chinese investment and trade with Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The hearing comes as Democrats continue to claim that the Trump administration is issuing illegal orders in their strikes against narco-terrorist drug boats in the Carribean.

China to suspend imports of Japanese seafood amid diplomatic row: Reports | Trade War News– www.aljazeera.com

pgnewser November 19, 2025 0

Blurb:

Diplomatic dispute deepens between Tokyo and Beijing over Taiwan remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

China will again ban all imports of Japanese seafood as a diplomatic dispute between the two countries escalates, Japanese media report.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency said on Wednesday that the seafood ban follows after China earlier this month lifted import restrictions on Japanese marine products, which were imposed by Beijing in 2023 after the release of treated radioactive water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

China’s AI cities are watching– www.americanthinker.com

pgnewser November 19, 2025 0

Blurb:

The term “smart city” fails to fully capture the integrated data system that is the Pudong New Area of Shanghai.  Chinese authorities call it the “city brain,” a centrally controlled A.I. center that surveils and manages the city and its inhabitants.  It offers a disturbing preview of future urban governance, built on a previously unimaginable level of monitoring and control.  Since 2017, this system has linked hundreds of government databases to tens of thousands of sensors, effectively turning an entire urban district into a single, real-time data object.

Officials defend the surveillance for its tangible rewards: cleaner neighborhoods, faster emergency response, smoother traffic, and better protection for isolated seniors.  Those benefits help explain why many citizens accept the system.  But the costs are equally real.  It normalizes penetrating, constant visibility, the steady expansion of behavior-based penalties, and an infrastructure that is also used for political and social control.

Court Upholds Florida Law Restricting CCP Land Purchases– thefederalist.com

pgnewser November 7, 2025 0

Blurb:

A federal appeals court upheld a Florida law on Tuesday that restricts Chinese nationals and entities affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from making land purchases in the state.

In a 2-1 ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the group of Chinese nationals challenging parts of the law (SB 264) lacked standing to bring their suit. The decision comes after the district court denied plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the statute’s enforcement.

“After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm the denial of the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion as to the registration and affidavit requirements. But we reverse and remand for the district court to deny the preliminary injunction motion without prejudice as to the purchase restriction because none of the plaintiffs have shown they have standing to challenge that provision of SB 264,” the ruling reads. The majority opinion noted how several of the plaintiffs, although they are Chinese citizens, were not “domiciled” in China, and therefore their efforts to purchase property falls outside the scope of the law.