US has right to take over any country for its resources: Miller

“Belligerent” was how one Democratic lawmaker described a diatribe given by top White House adviser Stephen Miller on CNN Monday evening regarding the Trump administration’s right to take over Venezuela – or any other country – if doing so is in the interest of the US.

To Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), however, Miller was simply providing viewers with “a very good definition of imperialism” as he described the worldview the administration is operating under as it takes control of Venezuela and eyes other countries, including Greenland, that it believes it can and should invade.

“This is what imperialism is all about,” Sanders told CNN‘s Jake Tapper. “And I suspect that people all over the world are saying, ‘Wow, we’re going back to where we were 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, where the big, powerful countries were exploiting poorer countries for their natural resources.’”

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Smiles all around at South Korea-China summit, the contrast with Japan could hardly be greater

While the world’s eyes were on Venezuela, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung traveled to Beijing to open a new era of cooperation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Lee also reiterated South Korea’s commitment to the One China policy.

Lee led a delegation that included about 200 economic officials and representatives of South Korean business, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. The two presidents held a summit meeting on Monday, December 5, which resulted in 14 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and one certificate of cultural asset donation. The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo lamented the fact that that they issued no joint statement. But the videos of Lee and Xi shaking hands and smiling, along with Lee taking selfies of the two of them and their wives, probably said more than any formal document could.

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Beijing moves to cut losses in Venezuela after Maduro’s capture

China has drawn up plans to minimize losses in Venezuela and fine-tune its broader overseas investment strategy after the United States captured the Latin American country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, on January 3.

Since the US military operation in Venezuela, the Chinese government has been busily assessing the situation and calculating potential losses to its economic interests. On Wednesday and Thursday, Chinese officials, media and commentators started expressing their views, showing that Beijing has finished its assessment.

In general, Beijing regrets having put too many eggs in one basket and having been too ready to believe that its investments in Venezuela would face minimal risks under international law. It also admits that it had underestimated the Trump administration’s ambition in the Western Hemisphere.

Some commentators are saying that, in the short run, China wants to ensure it can continue receiving crude oil from Venezuela, which still owes it about US$10 billion to US$20 billion. In the middle and long term, China may seek to sell certain fixed assets in Venezuela to Western firms or form partnerships with them to limit losses.

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China reports major road-building achievement in Tibet in strategic effort

China said Jan 6 that its local government in Tibet autonomous region’s efforts to build a modern transportation network had brought the total length of highways in it open to traffic to 125,200 kilometres by the end of 2025. China’s road building in Tibet is more than anything else strategic – for strengthening control over a restive region, border militarisation, opening up mines located in remote hitherto inaccessible areas, and for furthering its Sinicization drive.

While China’s official chinadaily.com.cn cited this as improvement in safety and public transport, road building in Tibet is much more than that. It is highly strategic, opening up the region’s vast and often critically important mineral resources for exploitation and transport to China, for maintaining iron-fist control over a restive region, and asserting dominance over Tibet by engaging in territorial disputes with its neighbouring countries.

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2025 temperature rose for record fourth consecutive year on Tibetan Plateau region

The temperature on the Tibetan Plateau region last year was 1.12 C above normal, breaking record for four consecutive years, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Jan 7, citing data released by the China Meteorological Administration’s National Climate Center.

The Third Pole region — covering high-altitude areas in and around the Tibetan Plateau — has now broken its temperature record for four consecutive years, from 2022 to 2025, the centre was cited as saying.

The report said most parts of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were warmer than usual last year, with 16 provincial-level regions recording their warmest year since 1961. The PRC recorded an average of 16.5 high-temperature days with a daily high of 35 C or above, the most in history and 7.4 days more than normal, the centre has said.

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China and Japan, uneasy neighbors in East Asia, are at odds again

They’re at it again.

China and Japan — frenemies, trading partners and uneasy neighbors with a tortured, bloody history they still struggle to navigate — are freshly at each other’s rhetorical throats as 2026 begins. And it’s over the same sticking points that have kept them resentful and suspicious for many decades: Japan’s occupation of parts of China in the 20th century, the use of military power in East Asia, economics and politics — and, of course, pride.From insinuations that Chinese citizens face dangers in Japan to outright accusations of resurgent Japanese imperialism, this first week of the year in China has been marked by the communist government scorning Tokyo on multiple fronts and noticeably embracing the visiting leader of another crucial strategic neighbor: South Korea.

The latest chapter in Japan-China enmity surged In November when Japan’s new leader waded into choppy bilateral waters. She said, in effect, that if China moved militarily against Taiwan, she wouldn’t rule out involving Japan’s constitutionally defense-only military. That didn’t go over well in Beijing, which has teed off on Tokyo over the years for far less.

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Businessman extradited from Cambodia to China suspected of running vast online criminal empire

Chen Zhi boasted of pulling in $30 million a day, prosecutors in the United States said — a suspected criminal mastermind and onetime internet cafe manager who authorities say presented himself as a legitimate businessman.

But in reality, they say, he ran online gambling sites, scams and other illegal businesses from a sprawling headquarters along the Cambodian coast.

On Thursday, Chen was in custody in China, at the center of what authorities at the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said was a “major achievement” in law enforcement cooperation between them and the Cambodian government. The ministry said that Chen was in its custody and that it soon would issue arrest warrants for key players in his network.

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Trump has a China problem in Venezuela: What to do with Beijing’s debt and oil stakes

When it comes to claiming that Venezuelan oil is now under his control, President Donald Trump is mincing no words. But no small part of that oil belongs to China under contracts it struck with Caracas years ago, setting the stage for a delicate diplomatic dance in the next few weeks.

Some experts expect Trump to work with China in an effort to stabilize trade relations. After all, Trump is expected to visit Beijing in April as part of an effort to protect the fragile trade truce he reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping late last year.

“The administration appears focused on avoiding unnecessary escalation or new irritants with Beijing while keeping leverage firmly on Washington’s terms,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

He added that he doubted Trump would risk turning Venezuela into a “flashpoint that complicates trade dynamics or Trump’s personal engagement with Xi.”

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More diplomatic and economic tensions surface between China, Japan as a bumpy week ends

A week in which longtime tensions between neighbors China and Japan ratcheted up economically and politically drew to a close with no sign of improvements Friday as the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo rebuffed his host nation and the Japanese reported delayed shipments to suppliers in China because of the spat.

The two developments capped a week where China made clear its displeasure with Japan by instituting new export controls, condemning what it called Tokyo’s renewed militarism and cozying up to another regional neighbor, South Korea, during its leader’s visit to Beijing.

On Friday, the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, kept the jabs coming.

“New militarism will lead Japan back into the abyss,” it said in an editorial. “History serves as a stark warning, yet the Japanese right wing is repeating its old tricks.”

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Musk-owned X sued by exiled dissident for closing his account at China’s behest

An overseas Chinese democracy activist has sued the social media platform X after it failed to restore his account after repeated representations over the past nearly four years, reported independent.co.uk Jan 7. The platform, owned by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person who reportedly owes anywhere from 60 to 70% of his net worth to his businesses in China, “permanently suspended” his account “without warning, notice or explanation,” on Feb 15, 2023, US-based pro-democracy activist Wilson Lei Chen, also known as Chen Pokong, has alleged in his $2 million plus lawsuit.

Chen’s suit, filed at the Manhattan federal court on Jan 5, describes him as “a renowned author, columnist, political commentator, [and] dissident.” Chen is representing himself in the lawsuit.

Imprisoned in the early 1990s for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement,” after which he fled to the United States, Chen has alleged that X unilaterally shuttered his account based on disinformation circulated by Beijing.

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Trump Plays Venezuelan Oil Card Against China

The U.S. raid on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife have put a spotlight on Washington’s resolve to block China’s influence in a region the U.S. views as its backyard.

Though an alleged but unproven claim that the Maduro government was involved in a narco‑conspiracy has been pushed as the main driver of the strike, which a senior Venezuelan official said left at least 80 dead, and which critics say violated both international and U.S. law. U.S. President Donald Trump also cited Venezuela's energy resources in justifying the operation.

Trump has said he would “run” the country’s oil operations for an unspecified period and has begun discussions with American oil companies about operating them.

“We’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground,” he said following the U.S. attack.

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US has right to take over any country for its resources: Miller

“Belligerent” was how one Democratic lawmaker described a diatribe given by top White House adviser Stephen Miller on CNN Monday evening regarding the Trump administration’s right to take over Venezuela – or any other country – if doing so is in the interest of the US.

To Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), however, Miller was simply providing viewers with “a very good definition of imperialism” as he described the worldview the administration is operating under as it takes control of Venezuela and eyes other countries, including Greenland, that it believes it can and should invade.

“This is what imperialism is all about,” Sanders told CNN‘s Jake Tapper. “And I suspect that people all over the world are saying, ‘Wow, we’re going back to where we were 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, where the big, powerful countries were exploiting poorer countries for their natural resources.’”

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How Trump’s Venezuela gamble is making Asian stocks great again

As the globe puzzles over US President Donald Trump’s sudden pivot toward regime change and plunder, investors can’t seem to get enough of Asia. This region’s equity bourses are enjoying their best-ever start to a year, as evidenced by the 4% jump in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index so far in 2026. Local foreign exchange gushes are registering the best start to a year since at least 2023. Tech-centric bourses in South Korea and Taiwan are hitting new record highs.

Though this latter dynamic also reflects the global artificial intelligence trade, it doesn’t detract from the point that Trump’s geopolitical adventurism in Venezuela — and perhaps elsewhere — is making Asian assets great again.

US stocks are up, too, throwing some cold water on a revival of the “sell America” trade. Yet there’s clearly a renewed impetus for investors to find opportunities outside the US economy, which is about to go through some things.

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China finds risks, opportunities as Trump pushes for ‘spheres of influence’

Hours before United States special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last Saturday, Maduro met with China’s special envoy to the Latin American country to reaffirm their nations’ “strategic relationship”.

Now the decades-long relationship is in question, as is the future of billions of dollars of Chinese investment in the country. At the same time, the US has handed China a new opportunity to assert its dominance in its own back yard, including on its claim to self-governing Taiwan, say analysts.Under the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, recently revived by US President Donald Trump, the Western Hemisphere falls under the US sphere of influence – and the US only.

Trump invoked the doctrine in his latest national security strategy published late last year. Originally intended to keep Europe out of the Western Hemisphere, Trump’s version emphasises the need to counter China’s presence there.

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China announces another new trade measure against Japan as tensions rise

China escalated its trade tensions with Japan on Wednesday by launching an investigation into imported dichlorosilane, a chemical gas used in making semiconductors, a day after it imposed curbs on the export of so-called dual-use goodsthat could be used by Japan’s military.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement that it had launched the investigation following an application from the domestic industry showing the price of dichlorosilane imported from Japan had decreased 31% between 2022 and 2024. “The dumping of imported products from Japan has damaged the production and operation of our domestic industry,” the ministry said.

The measure comes a day after Beijing banned exports to Japan of dual-use goods that can have military applications.

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South Korean leader says he asked China’s Xi to act as mediator on North Korea issues

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Wednesday he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to serve as a mediator to help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and ease animosities between the two Koreas.

Speaking with reporters traveling with him on the Shanghai leg of his China trip, Lee said he made the request when he met Xi for a summit in Beijing on Monday. Lee cited the Chinese president as replying that patience was needed on North Korean issues.

“We’re making efforts but all our channels (with North Korea) are completely blocked so we can’t communicate at all. I told him it would be good for China to play the role of a mediator for peace,” Lee said in televised comments. “President Xi appraised our efforts and said we need to be patient.”

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Prime Minister Mark Carney to visit China next week as Canada pivots away from the US

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday that he will visit China next week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping as Canada looks to reduce its reliance on the United States, which has threatened its economy and sovereignty.

It is the first visit to China by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years. Xi invited Carney to China when they met during an Asia-Pacific summit in October. The visit comes as the two countries move to restore stronger ties after years of tensions.

“We’re forging new partnerships around the world to transform our economy from one that has been reliant on a single trade partner, to one that is stronger and more resilient to global shock,” Carney said in a statement on Wednesday.

Carney will travel to China from Jan. 13 to 17. He will also attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland from Jan. 19 to 21.

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Trump’s Greenland gambit puts China on edge after Venezuela operation

U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed threat to take control of Greenland has raised alarm in Beijing, following Washington’s military operation that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump, who has long advocated U.S. control over the self-governing Danish territory, repeatedly emphasized on Sunday that Greenland is strategically important.

“We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

In an email to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump views acquiring Greenland as a national security priority to deter rivals in the Arctic. She added that his team is weighing a range of options — including the possibility of using military force.

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