China doesn't want to catch up with the USA in tech. It aims to lead

In an era marked by US overseas military actions and trade turbulence, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is counting on a plan to shield his country from the storm: driving innovation to transform China into the world’s leading tech superpower.

Over the next five years, China seeks to upgrade its already powerful industrial sector, strengthen tech “self-sufficiency” and incubate sectors that will help accelerate the country’s tech supremacy, from artificial intelligence and robotics to aerospace and quantum computing.

“For the first time, China wants to lead in a number of technologies. Previously, the focus was always catching up with the West,” said Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

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The United States and China need to lower expectations about Trump’s trip

Despite the United States’ ongoing “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran and its earlier kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, actions which have crippled the international order, preparations are underwayfor President Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to China from March 31 to April 2.

Trump last visited China in November 2017, during his first term. That visit was hailed as a success, and according to the White House, it laid the foundation for “productive engagement” with China. Trump was honored with special treatment no other U.S. president ever received – a tea reception hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping inside the Forbidden City. Prior to his China visit, Trump welcomed Xi to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in April 2017.

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Bessent will meet China’s vice premier in Paris ahead of Trump’s visit to Beijing

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Sunday and Monday in Paris for a new round of trade talks, the Treasury Department said, paving the way for President Donald Trump’s state visitto Beijing starting March 31.

The talks between He and Bessent are seen as preparatory work for the state visit that Beijing has not confirmed. The White House has said Trump is traveling to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, and it’s widely believed that the visit aims to keep relations stable between the world’s two largest economies.

“Thanks to the bonds of mutual respect between President Trump and President Xi, the trade and economic dialogue between the United States and China is moving forward,” Bessent said in a statement Thursday. “Under the guidance of President Trump, our team will continue to deliver results that put America’s farmers, workers, and businesses first.”

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Could Iran be using China’s highly accurate BeiDou navigation system?

Iran may be using a Chinese satellite navigation system to target Israel and United States military assets in the Middle East, intelligence experts say.

Former French foreign intelligence director Alain Juillet told France’s independent Tocsin podcast this week that it is likely that Iran has been provided access to China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system because its targeting has become much more accurate since the 12-day war with Israel in June.“One of the surprises in this war is that Iranian missiles are more accurate compared to the war that took place eight months ago, raising many questions about the guidance systems of these missiles,” Juillet, who served as the director of intelligence for the General Directorate for External Security from 2002 to 2003, told Tocsin.

In response to the US-Israeli attacks that began on February 28 and the killing of top Iranian figures, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran has launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel and US facilities in Gulf nations.

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Southeast Asia shuts offices, limits travel as oil crisis deepens

Governments and businesses across Southeast Asia are scrambling to stave off energy shortages as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut to maritime traffic, amid the fallout of the United States-Israeli war on Iran.

Thousands of kilometres away from the Gulf, government offices in the Philippines have moved to a four-day work week, officials in Thailand and Vietnam have been encouraged to work from home and limit travel, and Myanmar’s government has imposed alternating driving days. Governments are also intervening directly in the market in an effort to stabilise fuel prices.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced a temporary price cap on diesel, while Vietnam said it had started tapping into its fuel price stabilisation fund, according to state media. The measures are just a preview of what is to come in the region if the Strait remains closed, according to Priyanka Kishore, director and principal economist at Asia Decoded in Singapore.

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North Korea fires ballistic missiles as US-South Korea hold military drills

North Korea has fired multiple ballistic missiles from its west coast as the United States and South Korean forces stage their annual military exercises, according to Japanese and South Korean defence forces.

Japan’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that the missiles were fired at about 1:34pm local time (04:34 GMT) in a northeastern direction, according to a statement posted on X. Japan estimates that the missiles reached a maximum altitude of 80 kilometres (50 miles) and flew approximately 340 kilometres before landing near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, outside Tokyo’s exclusive economic zone.

Early reports indicate that no damage has been reported by nearby aircraft or ships, the post said.

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Torbjørn Færøvik: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is far more dangerous than the Iranian ayatollahs

While Donald Trump rages against Iran’s defiant ayatollahs, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is laughing louder than ever. And why not? North Korea has long since become a nuclear power, and Trump – supposedly the greatest man under heaven – has no choice but to accept it.

Earlier this week, “the Supreme Leader” sent yet another long-range missile into the sky. According to North Korean media, the test launch was “highly successful.” “With a deafening roar and a raging tail of fire, the missile announced that North Korea will not be subdued,” reports from the capital Pyongyang declared. Kim watched the event from a control room together with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae. It is being speculated that the 13-year-old girl has been designated as her father’s successor.

That the test launch took place while the United States is trying to bomb Iran into capitulation was hardly a coincidence. Kim Jong-un wants to tell the world that he himself feels secure, and that no power, not even the United States, will be able to force him to his knees.

And that is not all: North Korea’s missile program has become so advanced that the country’s intercontinental missiles can strike targets in the United States. Designed to fly up to 15,000 kilometers, they could in the worst case destroy several of America’s largest cities, even Washington, D.C. How precise and reliable the missiles would be in wartime is uncertain, but the program has clearly progressed far enough for North Korea to feel safer than ever.

Has Cambodia really cut cybercrime by half?

Cambodian authorities said last week that they had cut activity in scam compounds by half since the start of this year, as the government in Phnom Penh responds to international pressure to clamp down on digital criminal networks.

The Southeast Asian country has grown into a global hub for digital scammers in recent years. Experts estimate the criminals' profits to be in billions of dollars, with the industry targeting victims all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into scam centers under false pretenses, according to the UN. The victims are then kept in slave-like conditions and forced to work for the organized criminal networks.

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China passes controversial 'ethnic unity' law

China's National People's Congress approved legislation promoting what it calls the "ethnic unity" law, which human rights groups say could further marginalize minority groups. The law formalizes policies in order to promote Mandarin as the "national common language" for official purposes such as education and public affairs.

As part of the law, educational institutions will now be obliged to teach in Mandarin, with teenagers required to have a "basic grasp" of Mandarin when finishing their compulsory education. It also states that the law can be applied outside China's borders, meaning people outside China who "engage in activities that undermine ethnic unity" or incite "ethnic separatism" can be held legally liable.

The Chinese government has for decades faced allegations of trying to force assimilation of minorities into the Han majority. China acknowledges 55 official ethnic minorities within its territory that speak hundreds of languages and dialects. While no minority languages are specifically mentioned in the law, it is likely to affect Uyghur, Mongolian and Tibetan speakers.

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Taiwan parliament approves major arms deal with US

Taiwan's parliament on Friday approved four weapons deals with the US, giving the government the green light to approve the deal worth roughly $9 billion (roughly €7.86 billion). The arms packages are part of an $11 billion arms deal announced by Washington in December.

Taiwan's reluctance to increase defense spending has raised concerns in Washington. The US remains the Chinese-claimed island's most important international backer and arms supplier. The weapons include TOW anti-tank missiles, M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, Lockheed Martin-made Javelin missiles and
HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems. 

"This body ​upholds the principle of placing national security first and firmly defending territorial integrity," parliament speaker Han Kuo-yu said, reading the resolution, which passed unanimously.

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Trump wanted India off Russian oil. His war with Iran is now undermining that goal

For much of last year, Washington sought to starve Moscow’s war machine of cash, in part by removing one of its most loyal customers: India. Under President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign, the White House slapped high tariffs on many of New Delhi’s exports and sanctioned two of the Kremlin’s largest oil firms.

The strategy appeared to be working. While India didn’t quit its Russian oil habit entirely, it sharply reduced its purchases in favor of supplies from the Middle East.

But last week’s joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which almost all Middle Eastern oil flows. Iran has also threatened to attack energy infrastructure in neighboring countries in retaliation for airstrikes that hit major energy storage sites in Tehran.

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For nearly two weeks, Chinese fighter jets stopped buzzing Taiwan. No one seems to know why.

Taiwan’s military has grown used to the daily task of tracking Chinese warplanes flying near the island. Some days there are a handful. On others, many more. But they are a near-constant presence. So when the aircraft suddenly stopped coming for nearly two weeks, the silence was both striking and deeply puzzling.

That spell was broken on Thursday with five People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft operating around the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours, according to Taiwan’s military, with several flying near the median line that divides the waterway. Analysts say it was the longest pause in Chinese air activity since Taiwan began publicly releasing daily military data.

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What to know about the falloff in China’s military flights around Taiwan

Over the years, a regular Chinese campaign of sending warplanes flying toward Taiwan — the self-governing island it claims as its territory — has raised alarm from Taipei to Washington. Now, a sharp drop in the number of flights in the past two weeks has analysts scratching their heads about what China’s military may be up to. And that mystery carries risks, former U.S. defense official Drew Thompson said.

“There are so many theories and the lack of understanding of China’s intentions is what’s disconcerting,” said Thompson, now a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “You fill the void with uncertainty, and uncertainty increases risk.”

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Torbjørn Færøvik: Men Nord-Korea får være i fred

Mens Donald Trump raser mot Irans gjenstridige ayatollaher, ler Nord-Koreas Kim Jong-un høyere enn noensinne. Og hvorfor ikke? Nord-Korea er for lengst blitt en atommakt, og Trump – visstnok det største menneske under himmelen – kan ikke annet enn akseptere det.

Tidligere i denne uken sendte «Den øverste leder» nok en langdistanserakett til værs. Prøveoppskytingen skal ifølge nord-koreanske medier ha vært «svært vellykket». «Med et øredøvende brøl og en frådende ildhale kunngjorde raketten at Nord-Korea ikke lar seg kue», het det i meldingene fra hovedstaden Pyongyang. Kim fulgte begivenheten fra et kontrollrom sammen med datteren Kim Ju Ae. Det spekuleres på om den 13 år gamle jenta er utsett til sin fars etterfølger.

At prøveoppskytingen fant sted mens USA forsøker å bombe Iran til kapitulasjon, var neppe tilfeldig. Kim Jong-un vil fortelle verden at han selv føler seg trygg, og at ingen makt, ikke engang USA, skal kunne tvinge ham i kne.

Og ikke nok med det: Nord-Koreas rakettprogram er blitt så avansert at landets interkontinentale raketter kan ramme mål i USA. Siden de er laget for å fly opptil 15 000 kilometer, kan de i verste fall utslette flere av USAs største byer, selv Washington D.C. Hvor presise og pålitelige rakettene er i krig, er usikkert, men programmet er åpenbart kommet langt nok til at Nord-Korea føler seg tryggere enn noensinne.

Torbjørn Færøvik: The Empress in Exile. Will Farah Pahlavi Ever See Iran Again?

She has lived in exile for nearly half a century. Will she ever see Iran again?

She was the beauty who for years adorned magazine covers around the world. Farah Diba, born in Tehran in 1938, later Queen of Iran under the name Farah Pahlavi. She is now 87. From her exile in the United States, she follows the drama unfolding in her homeland hour by hour.

It is said that she lives a quiet life, dividing her time between properties in Paris and Washington, D.C. Yet she still attends cultural events for Iranian exiles and until recently has appeared together with her eldest son, Reza Pahlavi.

Farah Pahlavi has never returned to Iran since she and the Shah left the country in 1979. In interviews she says that her longing for her homeland remains strong. One of her most frequently quoted remarks is: “I live in exile, but Iran always lives in my heart.”Many years ago, in 2004, she published the book An Enduring Love: My Life With the Shah. It is both a personal memoir and a defense of her husband, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and of the monarchy that collapsed in 1979. She recounts that she grew up in a fairly well-to-do family and, as a young woman, had the opportunity to study architecture in Paris.

China’s exports surge in Jan-Feb despite waning trade with the US

China’s exports jumped nearly 22% in the first two months of the year from a year earlier, powered by a surge in shipments of computer chips, autos and electronics.  The export figures released by China’s customs agency on Tuesday were much better than economists had forecast. They far exceeded the 6.6% annual pace of growthrecorded in December.

Shipments to the U.S. fell 11% in January and February, narrowing from a 30% drop in December. Exports to the European Union increased almost 28% while those to Latin America climbed 16%.

Exports to the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, also were sharply higher.

China’s exports have been a bright spot for its economy despite tensions with the U.S. Chinese exports climbed 5.5% for 2025 as its trade surplus surged to a record of nearly $1.2 trillion. Higher shipments to other regions have helped offset weaker exports to the U.S. after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a variety of higher tariffs on imports from many countries.

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Japan prepares for deployment of its first home-developed long-range missile

Japan is preparing to deploy its first batch of domestically developed long-range missiles, with their launchers arriving at an army camp Monday as the country accelerates its offensive capability in response to rising challenges in the region.

The upgraded Type-12 land-to-ship missiles will be deployed at Camp Kengun in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto by the end of March, completing the process of deployment, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said without giving details.

Army vehicles carrying the launchers and other equipment arrived past midnight in a highly secretive mission criticized by residents. Dozens of people stood outside of the camp, shouting “Stop long-range missile deployment!” and holding banners carrying messages of protest.

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North Korean leader Kim watches cruise missile tests with his daughter

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter observed tests of strategic cruise missiles fired from a warship, state media reported Wednesday, as North Korea threatened responses to U.S.-South Korean military drills.

Images sent by the Korean Central News Agency showed the two in a conference room looking at a screen showing weapons being fired from the Choe Hyon, a year-old naval destroyer. Kim Jong Un watched the missiles launches via video on Tuesday and underscored the need to maintain “a powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent,” KCNA reported in a dispatch that did not mention his daughter.

The girl, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae and about 13, has accompanied her father at numerous prominent events including military parades and weapons launches since late 2022. South Korea’s spy agency assessed last month Kim Jong Un was close to designating her as his heir.

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Kim lauds North Korea’s economy and regional standing as major party meeting opens