In recent years, Beijing has increased its military and political influence on Taiwan, starting war games days after Lai’s opening, which encircle the area with marine and fighter jets. Taiwan’s government has been making reports of missions by fighter planes and drones around the island as well as near-daily sightingsContinue Reading
Tokyo: A town official said on Tuesday ( Aug 20 ) that a barrier built in Japan to obstruct a popular view of Mount Fuji has been removed temporarily in order to deter unruly tourists.
Residents of Fujikawaguchiko complained that streams of mainly foreign visitors were bothersome when trying to take pictures of Japan’s popular volcano, so Fujikawaguchiko set up the large screen in May.
The city decided not to restore the display on August 15 in the wake of a typhoon and decided not to do so.
” We wanted to see what would happen”, the city official told AFP.
” Some individuals also visit the place,” he said. However, he claimed that there are no longer some sudden rushes into traffic when crossing the road.
As he attempted to ease the tension from inflation and reclaim his position as leader, Kishida announced a stimulus package worth more than US$ 100 billion in November of last year. But this failed to make him any less unhappy, among voters in the nation’s fourth-largest economy and within hisContinue Reading
HONG KONG:  , China will beef up its 2.88 trillion yuan ( US$ 406 billion ) social security fund, making it “bigger and stronger” to help support its rapidly ageing population as the number of new births and younger workforce to support its seniors shrink. According to party secretary DingContinue Reading
The downpours in late July were triggered by Typhoon Gaemi, which moved on from the Philippines and Taiwan to make landfall in China, hitting the hilly, landlocked Hunan province particularly hard. Last month, authorities in eastern China temporarily halted public transportation and evacuated almost 300,000 residents. China has experienced aContinue Reading
According to National University of Singapore’s Chong Ja Ian, an expert on foreign relations, discussions on a range of topics are expected between the parties, including the Mekong’s management and cross-border business.
” The visit signals the continued valuing of Vietnam’s relationship with PRC ( People’s Republic of China ), and a desire to have smooth ties even if differences remain”, he added.
Emeritus professor Carlyle Thayer from the University of New South Wales ( UNSW) Canberra, drew reference to Mr Lam’s first China visit as Vietnam’s Communist Party chief, like his predecessor Trong did.
“( Like Trong ), To Lam is signalling that Vietnam is acknowledging China’s pre-eminent role as a socialist country ( and ) that intra-party relations is the most important bilateral conduit for relations”, added Prof Thayer.
He anticipates that Mr. Lam will also find assurances that China will continue to support the recommendations made by former Taiwanese President Xi, including the correction of financial regulations to help money exchanges between the yen and the dong.
This September, Mr. Lam is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York in addition to his trip to China. The Taiwanese president may join with US President Joe Biden during his visit, according to Professor Abuza from the National War College.
The back-to-back trips to the two nations underscore Vietnam’s versatile foreign policy, known as “bamboo diplomacy”, in navigating difficult political issues.
” Vietnam’s bamboo diplomacy is a metaphor not a strategy … The ends of Vietnam’s foreign policy are to remain independent and self-reliant by diversifying and multilateralising its foreign relations. The methods of wooden politics are versatile in practice but strong on theory, such as defending national sovereignty. said Professor Thayer.
Beijing, on the other hand, was not only ready but would also be very motivated to enhance important projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, such as the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong rail.
According to experts, the new coach lines are anticipated to connect with the recently constructed routes that will bring Chinese industrial goods and materials into the Asian border, facilitating imports of them.  ,
The Vietnamese General Statistics Office reports a 5.3 % increase in exports to China in the first half of the time, compared to$ 27.8 billion in the previous month. Concurrently, Vietnam imported$ 67 billion worth of goods from China, up 34.7 %, resulting in a trade deficit of$ 39.2 billion, a 67.9 per cent rise.
In response, the Taiwanese Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that bilateral trade between the two nations reached$ 100 billion during that time, cementing China’s position as Vietnam’s largest buying partner.
According to Prof. Kingsbury of Deakin University,” President Lam will be looking to build a more positive relationship” by boosting trade and Chinese investment in Vietnam.” There may also be discussion about creating a free trade zone along the border, or some ( sort of ) lowering ) of trade and investment barriers in their common border region,” said Prof. Kingsbury.
Mr. Lam’s first state visit to China comes in the wake of months of political tussles between Beijing and Hanoi over competing claims in the South China Sea.  ,
In response to continuing territorial disputes with one another and, more thoroughly, with China, which claims nearly the entire South China Sea, the seacoast soldiers of the Philippines and Vietnam conducted their first mutual drills earlier this month.
However, according to experts, continuous territorial disputes are unlikely to prevent China and Vietnam from strengthening bilateral relations this time around.
” Joint patrols between the Asian Coast Guard and other Asian nations are completely standard.” Since the Vietnamese Coast Guard has frequently conducted joint guards with the Chinese Coast Guard, these combined guards should be seen as efforts to promote friendly relations between Vietnam and many other countries, according to Dr. Viet.  ,
Tokyo was spared by a typhoon that blasted parts of Japan with more than 200kmh winds on Saturday ( Aug 17 ), which allowed trains and some flights to resume. Tokyo and its surrounding regions had been on high alert on Friday for Typhoon Ampil’s strategy, with travel companies, outings,Continue Reading
Tokyo, August 16: A “very powerful” typhoon slammed Japan’s Pacific coast with strong winds and heavy rainfall, causing the withdrawal of lots of flights and railways in the Tokyo region and causing over 2, 000 homes to be without power.
Located about 170km south of Tokyo, Typhoon Ampil was packing winds of up to 216kmh as it headed north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Instead of making ashore, the typhoon’s eye traveled northeast along the Honshu coast, passing through the Tokyo region, which has a population of about 40 million, before returning to the Pacific on Saturday.
The climate system was described as “very strong,” one notch below what it referred to as as a “violent typhoon,” with peak wind speeds of 195 kilometers per hour.
The company warned people to be “on high alert for violent winds, coastal waves, floods, flooding in low-lying lands, and valley storms”.
According to a statement, the risk of severe rain-related disasters may raise through Friday evening in the Kanto region close to Tokyo and through Saturday day in the northern Tohoku region.
By 3am Saturday ( 1800 GMT Friday ), the US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center off the coast of the east of the capital’s coastal Chiba region, was able to forecast maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour.
More than 18, 000 people were given instructions to leave Chiba district south of Tokyo, according to a speech from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Some 2, 000 communities in Tokyo’s neighbouring counties, generally Chiba, were without electricity as of Friday afternoon due to the storms, according to the energy controller.
After a previous program with a similar topic ended its work earlier this year, the market was appreciative of how it was received. It first aired in May.
Seoul-based CReA Studio, which created both indicates, said it took a great chance bringing the concept to life.
” There were concerns that this ( concept ) could cause some backlash. But amazingly, people responded quite positively”, the film’s CEO Seo Hye-jin said.
She added that people found the two programs” sensational” because Japanese music have never before been aired on popular South Korean television.
South Korea’s free-to-air systems typically do not show Chinese information.
When South Korea was under Chinese colonization for 35 years, remains from more than a century.
Some North Korean singers who were invited to the music show first expressed concern because they lacked knowledge of how the general public would respond to their rendition of Japanese.
” I thought it would be great if I could, as a singer, take part in this historic moment, when we can sing songs and become one ( through music )”, said veteran South Korean singer Lyn.
Korean viewers were very open to it, even though we spoke a different language, and I do n’t believe they ever connected it to any agonizing historical events or other things.
Utagokoro Rie, a song from Japan and a member in the program, claimed she was unaware of the country’s troubled history before making her first actually trip to South Korea for the program.
” When I first appeared on the show and sang, I was n’t thinking about ( politics ) at all”, the 51-year-old told CNA.
” But after this present aired, I heard Koreans claim that I serve as a bridge between South Korea and Japan. When they said that to me, I felt a sense of duty.
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo quickly improved after Yoon Suk Yeol became leader of South Korea in 2022.
He and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resumed making mutual visits as the two nations ‘ officials, a discipline that had been discontinued since 2011;
Both leaders want to strengthen security assistance, working with frequent allies, including the United States, to better manage North Korea’s nuclear threats.
SEOUL: South Korea’s capital broke a century-old weather record with the 26th so-called tropical night in a row- when the temperature stays above 25 degrees Celsius, according to official data released on Friday ( Aug 16 ). The temperature is constantly recording around 25 degrees Fahrenheit or higher because theContinue Reading