While the U.S. is holding off on imposing 25% tariffs on Canada, a new poll shows Canadians are angered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs against Canada and his comments about making their nation the 51st U.S. state.  

Observers believe that once the U.S. tariffs are implemented, it will hit the Canadian economy hard and may also allow China to reap the benefits. However, some Chinese American entrepreneurs in Canada say the U.S.-Canada tariff war has limited impact on their business. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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BEIJING — China on Wednesday began public consultation on new regulations designed to protect its domestic rare earth industry, a sector where Beijing has previously weaponized its dominance via export controls and other restrictions. 

The draft regulations were released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology late on Wednesday and touched on issues including quotas for mining, smelting and separating, as well as monitoring and enforcement. 

The rules are the latest in a series of attempts to bring the globally critical sector under tighter state control. China already dictates output via a system of quotas and state-controlled companies. 

Rare earths are a group of 17 minerals whose production China dominates, accounting for nearly 90% of global refined output.  

In 2023, Beijing banned the export of technology to make rare earth magnets, adding it to an existing ban on technology to extract and separate the critical materials. 

 
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New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Wednesday his country must “reset” its relationship with the Cook Islands government after its Pacific neighbor signed agreements with China without consultation.

In a speech to the Pacific Island Political Science Association in Wellington, Peters said Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown’s opaque dealings with Beijing was the latest attempt to test constitutional ties with New Zealand.

“While the connection between the people of the Cook Islands and New Zealand remains resolutely strong, we currently face challenges in the government-to-government relationship,” he said.

“We are going to need to reset the government-to-government relationship.”

The Cook Islands is a self-governing nation and maintains free association with Wellington, sharing a head of state and citizenship rights. It is permitted an independent foreign policy, but the two countries are required to consult on security, defense and foreign policy issues.

Brown’s visit to Beijing this month resulted in a strategic partnership with China spanning education, the economy, infrastructure, fisheries, disaster management and seabed mining.

It set off alarm bells in New Zealand due to concerns with China’s growing presence in the region and the potential threats to the country’s national security.

While the Cook Islands government has released details of the strategic partnership, Peters said New Zealand had not seen a number of memoranda of understanding also signed with China.

“New Zealand and the Cook Islands people remain, as of this evening, in the dark over all but one the agreements signed by China and the Cooks last week,” Peters said.

Brown’s deal with China follows an attempt by the Cooks to create its own passports and citizenship, a proposal New Zealand said would require the islands to become fully independent to do.

Separately, Peters also addressed tensions with Kiribati after its government canceled a planned visit by New Zealand officials at short notice.

Kiribati has also signed a series of bilateral deals with China in recent years.

Peters said Wellington had committed more than $57 million in aid to the Pacific island nation over the past three years and needed to reassess how funds were being used.

 
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The U.S. destroyer USS Johnson and the naval survey ship USS Bowditch passed through the Taiwan Strait successively within three days. In response, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army took the initiative to announce it to the world and released a tough statement. Moreover, the USS Bowditch took nearly three days to cross the Taiwan Strait, indicating the ship was not just passing by, but was conducting sea lane exploration and investigation under the surveillance of the PLA ships.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

 
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Taipei, Taiwan        — China has launched a new round of diplomatic outreach to European countries amid rising tension between the United States and its European allies.

While top U.S. officials and European leaders clashed over issues such as values, democracy and Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi held bilateral meetings with several top European officials, including EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“There is no fundamental conflict of interest or geopolitical conflicts between China and the EU,” Wang said during his meeting with Kallas on Saturday, adding that Beijing “supports all endeavors conducive to peace and backs Europe in playing a significant role” in the peace negotiation process regarding the war in Ukraine.

The EU response was somewhat more reserved, with Kallas saying the EU was ready to “continue with dialogue and cooperate in selected areas, such as trade, economic affairs, and climate change.” He urged Beijing to halt exports of dual-use goods to Russia, which she said fuels Moscow’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Wang’s remarks were in stark contrast to U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s criticism of European countries. Instead of highlighting the threats posed by Russia and China, Vance accused European government of censoring right-wing parties and failing to control migration.

“What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America,” he said in a defiant speech that stunned European officials in Munich.

Several European leaders quickly rejected Vance’s remarks, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying the U.S. vice president’s characterization of European policies was “unacceptable.”

The rare open clash between the U.S. and European countries came as top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday for talks about the Ukraine-Russia war with Russian diplomats.

To the surprise of many European leaders, U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg said in Munich that European countries wouldn’t be part of any peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which would be mediated by the U.S.

Analysts say China’s effort to strengthen engagement with Europe is part of Beijing’s plan to take advantage of divisions between Washington and its European allies.

“China’s posture is about exploiting the perceived mistakes of any U.S. administration,” said Mathieu Duchatel, director of international studies at the French policy group Institut Montaigne.

He told VOA by phone that the current tension between the U.S. and European countries has created an opportunity for Beijing to “weaken the transatlantic alliance on China policy.”

Given that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on European countries, other experts say the growing tension in transatlantic relations could force the EU to moderate its policies towards China.

“Since Europe can’t afford to wage two trade wars at the same time, it will be difficult for the EU and EU member states to maintain critical policies toward China,” Matej Simalcik, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA in an interview in Taipei.

In recent weeks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has pushed the EU to adopt more assertive policies against China, has repeatedly said the bloc is open to improving relations with China.

Europe “must engage constructively with China – to find solutions in our mutual interest,” she said during a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

US-European ties expected to hold

While European countries may consider adjusting their China policies, some European analysts say it’s unlikely for these attempts to turn into a fundamental shift of European policies towards China and the U.S.

“The U.S. and Europe are each other’s most important trading partners, so I don’t think there will be a [complete] transatlantic break,” said Sari Arho Havren, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

European countries “are testing the grounds and seeing what can be done, but at the same time, European officials have said whatever happens with China, it must be fair,” she told VOA by phone, adding that these factors will prevent the EU from “walking back” their earlier positions on China entirely.

Additionally, Duchatel at Institut Montaigne said Beijing’s decision to appoint former Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye, a prominent “wolf warrior diplomat,” as its special representative for European affairs means China is unlikely to make major concessions in its relations with the EU.

“Lu’s appointment represents inflexibility on everything that matters,” he told VOA, adding that some European diplomats said the new Chinese special envoy would “turn any diplomatic meeting into some sort of ideological confrontation that leads to no common position” between Beijing and European countries.

While China and the EU’s fundamental differences over issues such as Beijing’s partnership with Russia and the trade imbalances remain unresolved, some Chinese academics say the growing tension between the U.S. and European countries still offers an opportunity for Beijing and Europe to “increase mutual trust.”

“The growing tension in transatlantic relations has created a new environment for China to moderate relations with the EU, but it doesn’t mean European countries will reduce their criticism over Beijing’s partnership with Russia or China’s human rights record,” Shen Ding-li, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, told VOA by phone.
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BEIJING/TAIPEI — China on Monday urged the United States to “correct its mistakes” after the U.S. State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence, which it said was part of a routine update.

The fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington’s opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.

But as well as dropping the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence,” the page added a reference to Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project and says the U.S. will support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations “where applicable.”

Beijing regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials, viewing it as encouraging Taiwan’s separate status from China.

The update to the website came roughly three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in the White House.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the revisions for Taiwan on the U.S. State Department’s website were a big step backwards and “sends a seriously wrong message to Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

“This is yet another example of the United States’ stubborn adherence to the erroneous policy of ‘using Taiwan to suppress China’. We urge the United States side to immediately rectify its mistakes,” Guo said.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

“As is routine, the fact sheet was updated to inform the general public about our unofficial relationship with Taiwan,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email sent late Sunday Taiwan time responding to questions on the updated website wording.

“The United States remains committed to its one China policy,” the spokesperson said, referring to Washington officially taking no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and only acknowledging China’s position on the subject.

“The United States is committed to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson said.

“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We support cross-Strait dialog, and we expect cross-Strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to people on both sides of the Strait.”

On Sunday, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung expressed his appreciation for what he called the “support and positive stance on U.S.-Taiwan relations.”

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying that only the island’s people can decide their future.

Taiwan says it is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, who set up the People’s Republic of China.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the island’s chip dominance.

Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the United States, saying he aimed to restore U.S. chip manufacturing.

Wu Cheng-wen, head of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council, did not name Trump in a Facebook post but referred to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s comments on Friday that the island would be a reliable partner in the democratic supply chain of the global semiconductor industry.

Wu wrote that Taiwan has in recent years often been asked how its semiconductor industry had become an internationally acclaimed benchmark.

“How did we achieve this? Obviously, we did not gain this for no reason from other countries,” he said, recounting how the government developed the sector from the 1970s, including helping found TSMC, now the world’s largest contract chipmaker, in 1987.

“This shows that Taiwan has invested half a century of hard work to achieve today’s success, and it certainly wasn’t something taken easily from other countries.”

Each country has its own specialty for chips, from Japan making chemicals and equipment to the United States, which is “second to none” on the design and application of innovative systems, Wu said.

“The semiconductor industry is highly complex and requires precise specialization and division of labor. Given that each country has its own unique industrial strengths, there is no need for a single nation to fully control or monopolize all technologies globally.”

Taiwan is willing to be used as a base to assist “friendly democratic countries” in playing their appropriate roles in the semiconductor supply chain, Wu said.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China and the Cook Islands on Friday signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, but the lack of transparency around the details has alarmed New Zealand, the South Pacific state’s closest democratic ally.

While details of the agreement remain unclear, public statements from Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown and the islands’ Seabed Minerals Authority signaled that the Cook Islands and China would look to deepen cooperation in areas such as deep-sea mining, infrastructure enhancement, climate resilience, and economic cooperation.

The signing of the agreement is part of Brown’s seven-day diplomatic tour to China, during which he visited several Chinese research institutions and met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the northern city of Harbin.

Li said Beijing is willing to “deepen political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation with the Cook Islands,” while Brown said his country will “strengthen multilateral coordination on climate change and in other areas, and push for the sustained, in-depth development of the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.”

Analysts say the agreement is Beijing’s latest effort to increase its influence in the Pacific region amid growing tension between some Pacific countries, including the Cook Islands and Kiribati, and such democratic allies as New Zealand and Australia.

“China benefits from friction between longstanding partnerships in the Pacific as it seeks to position itself as an alternative partner,” said Anna Powles, an associate professor in security studies at Massey University in New Zealand.

New Zealand has expressed serious concerns about the deal between the Cook Islands and China, criticizing the South Pacific country for lack of transparency and consultation with Wellington over the details.

The Cook Islands has a free association agreement with New Zealand, which allows it to manage its foreign affairs while requiring it to consult Wellington on issues related to foreign policy.

“Under our constitutional arrangements, we expect, you know, matters of defense and security to be transparently discussed between partners. That’s all we’re asking for here,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a news conference Monday.

Despite New Zealand’s concerns, Brown has characterized conversations around the deal as “guided by what is best for the Cook Islands” and said “there is no need” for Wellington to get involved in the negotiation of the agreement with China.

Meanwhile, China said its relationship with the Cook Islands “does not target any third party, and should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party.”

In addition to the lack of transparency and consultation, some experts say the China-Cook Islands agreement could also contain “dual civil-military use technology and infrastructure.”

“This directly affects New Zealand and Cook Islands’ security and defense,” Anne-Marie Brady, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, told VOA in by email.

Tensions between Kiribati and democratic allies

Tension is also rising between New Zealand and Kiribati, another South Pacific state. After failing to secure a meeting with Kiribati President Taneti Maamau in January, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Wellington would review development funding to Kiribati following the diplomatic snub.

“The lack of political-level contact makes it very difficult for us to agree on joint priorities for our development program and to ensure that it is well targeted and delivers good value for money,” Peters’ office said in a statement issued late last month.

In addition to Peters, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles did not secure a meeting with Maamau during a trip to Kiribati last month, but he stuck with the original plan by delivering a patrol boat to the Pacific Island country.

Powles in New Zealand said Maamau’s decision not to meet with Peters and Marles may reflect a shift in Kiribati’s diplomatic focus.

“Kiribati’s primary bilateral relationships appear to be Fiji, Nauru, and China, and the lack of engagement with partners such as New Zealand reflects this,” she told VOA by email.

Other experts say that while Kiribati and the Cook Islands are not necessarily looking to abandon their partnership with New Zealand, China will be looking to “capitalize” on recent events.

“China would seek to undermine those relationships and say ‘the West is paternalistic and colonialist and doesn’t genuinely have your interests at heart as China does,’” Blake Johnson, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told VOA by phone.

Beijing’s attempts to increase diplomatic efforts in the Pacific also come as the United States freezes funding for foreign aid and New Zealand threatens to review development funding for Kiribati.

Since most Pacific Island countries rely heavily on foreign aid, Johnson said a potential lack of funding from democratic allies could force countries in the Pacific region to seek support from China. “China can be responsive when it wants to fill those [funding] gaps,” he said.

To counter China’s attempt to increase diplomatic presence in the Pacific region, Parker Novak, a nonresident fellow at the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said democratic countries, including Australia and the United States, should continue to provide support to Pacific Island countries.

Australia, the U.S., and other like-minded countries should continue “to foster positive, consultative relationships that help Pacific Island countries meet their development needs and provide a credible alternative to PRC inducements,” he told VOA by email. 
…

Ne Zha 2 has raked in a record-breaking box office of $1.3 billion in the past week. It’s a movie, critics say, that resonates with Chinese viewers. They identify with its rebellious characters and hope for a fate-changing experience. It is also another sign that they are choosing domestic movies with traditional cultural symbols rather than Hollywood blockbusters. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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The Chinese government’s ambitious “urban village redevelopment” plan was initially expected to not only improve urban environments and enhance residents’ quality of life but also serve as a key driver for boosting the real estate market and revitalizing local economies. However, amid the economic slowdown, tightening fiscal conditions and increasing resistance to demolition, many urban village redevelopment projects have been delayed or stalled, drawing widespread attention.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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President Donald Trump’s immigration policy has mainly been focused on migrants trying to cross into the US at its border with Mexico, some having made the perilous trek from as far as South America. Out in the western Pacific Ocean, some Chinese are taking an equally dangerous route into the US VOA’s Yu Yao and Jiu Dao have their story, narrated by Elizabeth Lee.
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation’s nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the U.S. adversaries to cut their own spending.

“There’s no reason for us to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. We already have so many,” Trump said. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”

“We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,” Trump said.

While the U.S. and Russia have held massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in its capability to exact nuclear devastation “within five or six years.”

He said if the weapons were ever called to use, “that’s going to be probably oblivion.” 

Trump said he would look to engage in nuclear talks with the two countries once “we straighten it all out” in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi [Jinping] of China, President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia. And I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to.”

Trump in his first term tried and failed to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks when the U.S. and Russia were negotiating an extension of a pact known as New START. Russia suspended its participation in the treaty during the Biden administration, as the U.S. and Russia continued on massive programs to extend the lifespans or replace their Cold War-era nuclear arsenals.
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London — China’s demand for road and air transport fuels may have passed its peak, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday, citing data showing that the country’s consumption of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel declined marginally in 2024. 

Combined consumption of the three fuels in China last year was at 8.1 million barrels per day (bpd), which was 200,000 bpd lower than in 2021 and only narrowly above 2019 levels, the IEA said in a monthly report. 

“This strongly suggests that fuel use in the country has already reached a plateau and may even have passed its peak,” it said. 

After decades of leading global oil demand growth, China’s contribution is sputtering as it faces economic challenges as well as making a shift to electric vehicles (EVs). 

The decline in China’s fuel demand is likely to accelerate over the medium term, which would be enough to generate a plateau in total China oil demand this decade, according to the Paris-based IEA. 

“This remarkable slowdown in consumption growth has been achieved by a combination of structural changes in China’s economy and the rapid deployment of alternative transportation technologies,” the IEA said. 

A slump in China’s construction sector and weaker consumer spending reduced fuel demand in the country, it said, adding that uptake of EVs also weighed.  

New EVs currently account for half of car sales and undercut around 250,000-300,000 bpd of oil demand growth in 2024, while use of compressed and liquified natural gas in road freight displaced around 150,000 bpd, it said. 
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LONDON — Hundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, with conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo high on the agenda, alongside simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

It’s the first major global summit for the new administration in Washington under President Donald Trump and comes amid speculation that his America First agenda could presage significant changes in U.S. foreign policy.

US delegation

The U.S. delegation includes Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We are very happy that we will have a strong representation of both the administration of the new American government there, as well as representation from Congress,” said conference chairman Christoph Heusgen.

“And so, the American point of view will also be presented on stage, as will the European point of view, and that of other regions. And then, and that is what Munich stands for, there will be a dialogue, a discussion about the many issues at hand,” Heusgen told Reuters.

Vance is scheduled to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich.

Ukraine’s war against Russia’s full-scale invasion is about to enter its fourth year. Zelenskyy said this week he shared a “common vision” with the Trump administration.

“Of course, there may be different opinions, but a common vision of the main things — of how to stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and how to give guarantees of security to Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Monday.

‘Unrealistic’

However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine following any ceasefire deal with Russia and ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv. He also described Ukraine’s hopes to return to its pre-2014 borders with Russia as unrealistic.

“European allies must lead from the front,” Hegseth told reporters in Brussels following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

President Trump has made clear he wants a quick end to the war but it’s not clear how that might be achieved. Trump announced Wednesday he and Putin agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict.

NATO allies

Nevertheless, U.S. allies sense a change in tone from the president since his inauguration last month, said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based research group.

“Though Trump has said a lot of things to worry a lot of people on tariffs, on trade, on Gaza and so on, he hasn’t yet said anything particularly crazy from a European point of view about Ukraine or NATO. He hasn’t repeated his threat to pull out of NATO. He said the Europeans should spend more [on defense] but most of us agree with him on that. He hasn’t said he’s going to cut off all aid for Ukraine,” Grant told VOA.

“One of the issues that will come up in Munich is to what extent the Europeans should help to keep the peace if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine. And certainly, President [Emmanuel] Macron of France, and to some degree the British, and possibly Friedrich Merz who may well be the next German chancellor, are all in favor of sending troops to keep the peace in Ukraine, if there’s a peace to be kept,” Grant added.

Ukrainian hopes

On the streets of Kyiv, some Ukrainians expressed hope that the Munich conference will strengthen Ukrainian ties with the Trump administration.

“We hope that this personal meeting between President Zelenskyy and Vice President Vance will give an opportunity to convey the real situation of what is happening today in the Russian-Ukrainian war,” sociologist Asked Ashurbekov told The Associated Press.

Ukrainian journalist Borden Semeniuk was less optimistic.

“The country has been living in expectation for three years, and because of this, belief in this expectation has decreased. … I would like to see some relief from the situation. But it is impossible to live in the hope that it will 100 percent happen at this meeting,” Semeniuk told AP.

Russia and Iran have not been invited to Munich. Last year, the conference organizers said their governments had not shown a serious interest in negotiations.

China

The official report of the Munich Security Conference cites the “multipolarization of the international order” — a theme welcomed by China, which is sending a large delegation to the summit.

“The report shows that the international community’s acceptance of a multipolar world is on the rise. … China has always called for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, the U.S Navy sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait, prompting an angry response from Beijing.

China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent months. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that someday will be reunified with the mainland, while Taipei considers the island a sovereign state.

Secretary of State Rubio is due to hold a trilateral meeting with allies Japan and South Korea while in Munich.

Gaza

Conflict in the Middle East will also top the agenda at the Munich conference, amid fears that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is at risk.

President Trump’s repeated suggestion that Palestinians should leave Gaza will overshadow the conference, said analyst Charles Grant.

“I don’t see it happening because you can’t just eliminate 2 million people and put them nowhere at all,” Grant said.

“But I think most European governments are hoping that Trump will just push this for a while, and he’ll get bored of it and talk about something else – and hope he will kind of move on and forget it. But so long as he does talk about it, it’s very disruptive and creates a lot of ill-feeling between European and many other governments, and the U.S.,” Grant told VOA.

The conference will also host sessions on the conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Climate change, energy security and artificial intelligence also feature on a packed agenda across the three-day conference.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. will have to get more aggressive to make its relationship with China authentic and reciprocal, said Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party on Tuesday. He said he and others on the committee have introduced legislation that would revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations and end the de minimis exemption, one that would put tariffs directly China, especially some key sectors at 100% and lesser sectors around 35%.

Click here for the full story in Mandarin.
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China’s National Radio and Television Administration released a new “classified and tiered review” system to tighten censorship on microdramas on Feb. 5.  

Any microdrama themed at “politics, national security, United Front, diplomacy, ethnicity” will be closely and directly scrutinized by the regulator. Most streaming platforms, required to manage the content themselves, will still be prohibited from distributing or promoting microdramas, unlicensed without a registration number.  

The latest policy runs contrary to the Chinese government’s efforts since early last year to promote the microdrama industry. Why is there a sharp turn now? How will the regulator censor microdramas with sensitive themes? How will the Chinese audience respond to the tightened censorship?  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

 
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WASHINGTON — After the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week, the two nations voiced alignment on Trump’s “peace through strength” approach toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific region, analysts said.

“The prime minister and I will be working closely together to maintain peace and security — and I also say – peace through strength all over the Indo-Pacific,” said Trump, at a press conference after his meeting Friday with Ishiba in Washington.

“We agreed to cooperate even more closely to combat the Chinese economic aggression, which is quite aggressive,” Trump said.

Ishiba said: “Further strengthening the strong and unwavering Japan-U.S. alliance to achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific” is key “to advance the national interests of both of our countries in synergy and to realize peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”

Analysts say the first official meeting between Trump and Ishiba succeeded in striking agreements on what both leaders consider crucial: combating China’s aggression and strengthening their national interests.

Security commitment

Ishiba continued to forge close ties with the U.S. to maintain multilateral alliance security cooperation close to home in the Indo-Pacific, while Trump secured Japanese investments and purchases.

Taken together, analysts say, Ishiba is aligned with Trump’s vision of making the U.S. strong at home in his “America First” approach as a prerequisite for maintaining peace through strength in the Indo-Pacific, a region crucial to Japan’s defense.

“The U.S.-Japan leaders’ communiqué went a long way to reaffirm Trump’s peace through strength approach to the Indo-Pacific,” said Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at Hudson Institute.

“The U.S.-Japan leaders’ communiqué, which President Trump signed off on, highlighted the importance of multilateral networks in the Indo-Pacific,” Weinstein told VOA on Sunday.

“The two leaders intend to advance multilayered and aligned cooperation” with the Quad security dialogue and three separate trilateral ties with South Korea, Australia and the Philippines “to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Trump and Ishiba said in a joint statement.

There were concerns by some that Trump would not support alliance security formations aimed at maintaining peace and security in the region.

“A big concern on the part of the Japanese” was whether the Biden administration’s emphasis “on the centrality of alliance” or the “so-called multilayered structures” or “mini laterals” would continue, said Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford University.

Sneider told VOA on Monday, “It was reassuring for the Japanese and for those in the U.S. who are worried whether those types of policies would have continuity that there was at least a written affirmation of those things in the joint statement.”

In their joint statement, Trump and Ishiba also expressed “strong opposition” to China’s attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and its unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea.

They also expressed support for Taiwan’s “meaningful participation in international organizations” and opposed China’s efforts to disturb stability across the Taiwan Strait.

At a press briefing held in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun, said, “The part of the U.S.-Japan joint statement on China constitutes open interference in China’s domestic affairs and an attack and smear against China, which is also aimed at scaremongering in the region.”

Increased investment

Trump announced at the press conference that Japan will invest $1 trillion in the U.S., participate in the Alaska LNG project, and invest in, rather than buy, U.S. Steel.

In one of the first executive orders Trump signed on Jan. 20, he made Alaskan natural resources open to development and production and its liquefied natural gas available for sale to U.S. allied nations within the Pacific region.

Ishiba said, “An unprecedented investment” from Japan to the U.S. and the Japanese investments in U.S. Steel are “mutually beneficial” and “contribute not only to the United States and Japan but also to the whole world.”  

Weinstein, at Hudson, said, “The announcement of a trillion dollars in foreign investment in the U.S. was the landmark moment, as was the announcement of the investments in the LNG sector” and “the pending U.S. Steel investment.”

“Ishiba is supporting what is in Japan’s best interest: an alliance with minimal distance between the U.S. and Japan,” he said. “So he understands he needs to back the America First approach to continue alignment with the Trump administration. A strong America is the best guarantee for global peace and stability.”

In explaining what foreign policy would look like under the Trump administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during his confirmation hearing in January, emphasized “a foreign policy centered on our national interest” and making the U.S. strong first at home as the prerequisite for maintaining peace and security around the world.

“Ishiba respects Trump’s America First” policy, but he is also a “Japan first” prime minister, said Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center.

She told VOA on Friday that “both leaders gained. Trump got a commitment of increased investment by Japan in the U.S., while Ishiba gained Trump’s articulation of the U.S. commitment to the defense of Japanese territory, including the Senkaku Islands, and the joint statement in which U.S.-Japan support for Taiwan was articulated.”

In the joint statement, Ishiba and Trump underscored the United States’ “unwavering commitment” to defending Japan using its full range of capabilities, including nuclear capabilities. The two also “reiterated their strong opposition to any action that seeks to undermine Japan’s long and peaceful administration of the Senkaku Islands.”

There is “continuity” from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, Tatsumi said, and that is to make U.S.-Japan ties “the hub of alliance cooperation and partnership across the Indo-Pacific.”
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BEIJING — Two U.S. Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks.

The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

China’s military said the two U.S. ships, which it named as the destroyer Lyndon B. Johnson and the survey ship Bowditch, had passed through the strait between Monday and Wednesday, adding that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.

“The U.S. action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement early Wednesday.

The U.S. Navy confirmed the transit. The last publicly acknowledged U.S. Navy mission in the strait was in late November, when a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew over the waterway.

The last time a U.S. Navy ship was confirmed to have sailed through the strait was in October, a joint mission with a Canadian warship. 

China’s military operates daily in the strait as part of what Taiwan’s government views as part of Beijing’s pressure campaign.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

 
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Across China, K-12 schools are making students study more than 16 hours a day, six days a week in a phenomenon called 611. Some schools allow students only a half day off per month. Chinese teachers, key opinion leaders and U.S. education experts talk about the phenomenon, how the Chinese practice affects students, and how it can be improved.   

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the U.S. on Wednesday. President Donald Trump announced Modi’s White House visit as India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, where they agreed to restore bilateral ties and resume direct flights and pilgrimages by Indian pilgrims to a holy site in Tibet. 

While Modi’s government has shifted toward populist policies, China launched an aggressive public relations campaign in 2024 to improve its standing with India. Analysts view China’s diplomatic push as a response to the deepening U.S.-India partnership and Beijing’s desire to maintain regional influence, particularly given expected tensions with the Trump administration. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 

 
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HONG KONG — Marriages in China dropped by a fifth last year, the biggest drop on record, despite manifold efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country’s declining population.

More than 6.1 million couples registered for marriage last year, down from 7.68 million a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

Declining interest in getting married and starting a family has long been blamed on the high cost of childcare and education in China. On top of that, sputtering economic growth over the past few years has made it difficult for university graduates to find work and those that do have jobs feel insecure about their long-term prospects.

But for Chinese authorities, boosting interest in marriage and baby-making is a pressing concern.

China has the second-biggest population in the world at 1.4 billion but it is aging quickly.

The birth rate fell for decades due to China’s 1980-2015 one-child policy and rapid urbanization. And in the coming decade, roughly 300 million Chinese – the equivalent of almost the entire U.S. population – are expected to enter retirement.

Measures taken last year by authorities to tackle the problem included urging China’s colleges and universities to provide “love education” to emphasize positive views on marriage, love, fertility and family.

And in November, China’s state council or cabinet, told local governments to direct resources towards fixing China’s population crisis and spread respect for childbearing and marriages “at the right age.”

Last year saw a slight rise in births after a lull due to the pandemic and because 2024 was the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon – with children born that year considered likely to be ambitious and have great fortune.

But even with the increase in births, the country’s population fell for a third consecutive year.

The data also showed that more than 2.6 million couples filed for divorce last year, up 1.1% from 2023.
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Climate change is rapidly altering the Arctic region, creating environmental danger, economic opportunity and geopolitical tension as the world’s major powers scramble to control newly accessible shipping lanes and resource deposits.
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Hundreds of demonstrators protested Saturday at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. 

The new embassy, if approved by the U.K. government, would be the “biggest Chinese Embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. 

Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, told AFP said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” 

China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the shadow of the Tower of London. 

The move has sparked fierce opposition from nearby residents, rights groups, critics of China’s ruling Communist Party and others. 

“This is about the future of our freedom, not just the site of a Chinese Embassy in London,” Conservative Party lawmaker Tom Tugendhat told AFP at the protest, adding that people living in the U.K. have been threatened by Chinese state agents. 

“I think it would be a threat to all of us because we would see an increase in economic espionage… and an increase in the silencing of opponents of the Chinese Communist Party (in the U.K.),” the former security minister added. 

Housing the Royal Mint, the official maker of British coins, for nearly two centuries, the site was earlier home to a 1348-built Cistercian abbey but is currently derelict. 

Beijing bought it for a reported $327 million in 2018. 

“It will be like a headquarter (for China) to catch the (Hong Kong) people in the U.K. to (send them) back to China,” said another protester dressed in black and wearing a full face mask, giving his name only as “Zero,” a member of “Hongkongers in Leeds,” the northern English city. 

The protest comes as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, elected last July, wants more engagement with Beijing following years of deteriorating relations over various issues, in particular China’s rights crackdown in Hong Kong.  

In November, Starmer became the first U.K. prime minister since 2018 to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, when the pair held talks at the G20 summit in Brazil.  

A national planning inspector will now hold a public inquiry into the project, but Communities Secretary Angela Rayner will make the final decision. 

Opponents fear the Labour government’s emphasis on economic growth, and improved China ties, could trump other considerations. 
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WASHINGTON — The first week of February is marked by grief for Zubayra Shamseden not only because she lost loved ones nearly three decades ago, she says, but because China’s repressive policies toward Uyghurs continue.

“I have been commemorating this day and protesting for the past 28 years, every February 5,” Shamseden told VOA. “The Ghulja massacre in 1997 was the beginning of today’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs.”

Many protesters were killed by the Chinese armed forces that day in what Shamseden describes as a violent Chinese government crackdown on a peaceful Uyghur protest in Ghulja, a city in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. During subsequent crackdowns, she also lost her brother, Sadirdin, and her nephew, Hemmat Muhammet.

In the aftermath, another brother was sentenced to life in prison.

“The Chinese government should release all prisoners, including my brother, who were unjustly imprisoned,” she told VOA.

Outset of violence

In recent years, China’s policy toward Uyghurs in Xinjiang has drawn global attention, with the U.S. officially labeling China’s actions as genocide. The United Nations has raised alarms, warning that China’s conduct may constitute crimes against humanity, including mass detentions, forced labor, and other abuses. Beijing, which refers to the 1997 crackdown as “the Yining incident” — a measured police response to an unfolding “riot” — has dismissed these claims as “sheer falsehoods” driven by U.S.-led anti-China forces.

Now Chinese outreach coordinator for the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, Shamseden led a demonstration Wednesday outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Joined by a dozen activists, she marked the anniversary of what she and many others refer to as the Ghulja Massacre.

Recalling the violence of that day, Shamseden says a few hundred unarmed Uyghur youths marched through Ghulja, calling for basic rights.

“They took to the streets peacefully and unarmed, asking the government to respect their Islamic religious freedom and Uyghur cultural practices,” said Shamseden, a former vice president of the World Uyghur Congress.

The youths also called for the release of previously “arrested leaders of their gatherings, because the Chinese authorities didn’t allow them to gather for Meshrep,” she said.

Meshrep, a traditional Uyghur community gathering, has been recognized by UNESCO as part of Uyghur intangible cultural heritage since 2010.

Some Meshrep organizers, Shamseden said, had previously been arrested despite initial government approval to hold Meshrep gatherings.

Speaking out about a drug crisis among fellow youths in the region had been the purpose of their gatherings.

“The Uyghur youth in Ghulja sought to address the growing heroin addiction crisis that spread in the early 1990s,” Shamseden said. “They turned to Meshrep — traditional gatherings that included sports, music, performances, and other forms of entertainment — to help young Uyghurs struggling with addiction and alcohol.”

Officials in Beijing, however, soon deemed the gatherings a threat. In August 1995, key organizers were arrested, prompting protests in Ghulja. Authorities responded by banning Meshrep and cracking down on other Uyghur-led initiatives.

Uyghurs were later barred from holding events of any kind.

Different perspective

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, described the protest as “not a so-called massacre, but a serious incident of beating, smashing, and looting” carried out by a burgeoning terrorist group.

“Xinjiang was once a major area where extremist groups infiltrated and carried out violent terrorist activities,” Liu said, adding that China’s measures in the region have been aimed at countering terror-based insurgency within the framework of Chinese law.

A 1997 Human Rights Watch report, however, linked the crackdown to a secret Chinese government directive known as “Document No. 7.” Issued in March 1996 by the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the document laid out measures to strengthen control over Xinjiang, including restrictions on religious and cultural activities, increased military presence and tighter security enforcement.

The Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs described the Chinese government crackdown on protesters as a massacre, stating that the policies behind that bloodshed have evolved into the genocide unfolding today.

The Ghulja Massacre was “a pivotal moment when the world had an opportunity to recognize China’s trajectory towards mass atrocities — and failed to act,” said Rushan Abbas, the group’s executive director, in a statement issued Wednesday.

“That failure emboldened the [Chinese Communist Party],” said Abbas, who is also chairperson of the executive committee at World Uyghur Congress. “Today, as Uyghurs endure genocide, history repeats itself. The price of inaction is paid in human lives, and every day without accountability reinforces the Chinese regime’s belief that it can commit atrocities without consequence.”

According to Shamseden, who had been in Australia since 1993, visiting Ghulja only in the aftermath of the crackdown in 1998, mass arrests and collective punishment had by then become routine.

This crackdown led to the arrest, torture and release of her sister for allegedly helping a Ghulja protester, the killing of her brother Sadirdin in Kazakhstan under mysterious circumstances, and the killing of her nephew Hemmat Muhammet by Chinese police in Ghulja. Shamseden’s nephew and brother were leading members of earlier Meshrep gatherings.

In 1999, Shamseden said another younger brother, Abdurazzak was sentenced by the Chinese officials for being a separatist, receiving a sentence of life in prison.

To this day, she said, she has been unable to learn any details about her brother’s current fate, including whether he is alive.

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Abdurazzak’s sentence was commuted by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court in August 2016. He had reportedly been serving time at Urumqi No.1 Prison, and is expected to be released in 2036, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
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