TAIPEI: China is trying to set a “red line” for the incoming Trump administration and US allies by stepping up military activities in the region, a senior Taiwan security official said, including likely war games this weekend around the island.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory over Taipei’s rejection, has held two rounds of war games around the island so far this year, and its forces operate nearby on a daily basis.
The official confirmed concerns expressed by other security officials in the region who have previously told Reuters that China could launch new drills to coincide with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s trip to the Pacific this week which included visits to Hawaii and the US territory of Guam.
“They want to clearly establish that the First Island Chain is China’s red line and its sphere of control before the new US government takes office on Jan. 20,” the official told a briefing in Taipei, offering the government’s assessment of China’s activities.
The First Island Chain is an area that runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal seas.
Neither China’s Taiwan Affairs Office nor its defense ministry responded to a request for comment.
The Taiwan official, briefing on condition of anonymity to be able to speak more freely, said China could launch new war games shortly before or after Lai’s return to Taipei from the Pacific on Friday.
“They want to tell the new US government that this area is controlled by China and that you must discuss with China everything that happens here,” the official said, pointing to recent Chinese military activities around Taiwan including joint maneuvers with Russia near the island’s east coast earlier this week.
“They want other countries — the United States or Europe — to know that this is their sphere of influence and that they should be taken seriously.”
China has deployed close to 40 vessels in the region this week, including a Chinese aircraft carrier group led by Liaoning in the East China Sea as well as other naval and coast guard boats in the South China Sea.
Reuters first reported that a north bound Russian naval fleet on Monday approached close to Taiwan’s contiguous zone 24 nautical miles (45 km) off its southeastern coasts and conducted joint simulated attacks on “foreign vessels and aircraft” with a Chinese destroyer nearby.
China urged the United States last week to exercise the “utmost caution” on relations with Taiwan, ahead of Lai’s Pacific tour. Beijing opposes any foreign interactions or visits by Taiwan leaders.
Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
Taiwan official says China trying to set a ‘red line’ for incoming Trump government
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Taiwan official says China trying to set a ‘red line’ for incoming Trump government
US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’: Trump press chief
- Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States
“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding “hundreds” were deported by military aircraft.
“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept,” she said.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On Thursday Newark city mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “raided a local establishment... detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant.”
The mayor said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran, “this egregious act is in plain violation” of the US Constitution.
An ICE post on X said: “Enforcement update ... 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged.”
New Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were “deeply concerned” about the Newark raid by immigration agents.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” they said in a joint statement.
Trump has vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” impacting an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”
His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed during Trump’s first presidency, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
Earlier in the week the Republican-led US Congress green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
Trump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal migration was “poisoning the blood” of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Southeast Asian cities among world’s most polluted, ranking shows
- Air pollution is caused by a combination of crop-related burning, industrial pollution and heavy traffic
- Weeks earlier, Vietnam’s capital Hanoi was ranked the world’s most polluted
BANGKOK: Southeast Asian cities were among five most polluted in the world on Friday according to air-monitoring organization IQAir, with Ho Chi Minh City ranked second-most polluted, followed by Phnom Penh and Bangkok fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the Thai capital, a thick smog was seen covering the city’s skyline. Workers, especially those who spend most of their time outdoors, were suffering.
“My nose is constantly congested. I have to blow my nose all the time,” said motorcycle taxi driver Supot Sitthisiri, 55.
Air pollution is caused by a combination of crop-related burning, industrial pollution and heavy traffic.
In a bid to curb pollution, the government is allowing free public transportation for a week, Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said.
Some 300 schools in Bangkok were closed this week, according to the city administration.
“They should take more action, not just announce high dust levels and close schools. There needs to be more than that,” said Khwannapat Intarit, 23.
“It keeps coming back, and it’s getting worse each time.”
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in a social media post that companies and government agencies should allow staff to work from home to reduce car use and construction sites should be using dust covers.
“The government is fully committed to solving the dust problem,” she said.
In Vietnam’s largest city, IQAir said the level of fine inhalable particles in Ho Chi Minh City was 11 times higher than the recommended level by the World Health Organization.
Weeks earlier, the capital Hanoi was ranked the world’s most polluted, prompting authorities to issue a warning about the health risks from air pollution and urging the public to wear masks and eye protection.
Governments in Southeast Asia were pushing for longer-term solutions to bring pollution down including a carbon tax and promoting the use of electric vehicles.
‘Get them out’: freed Belarus prisoners fear for those still inside
- The Viasna rights group says Belarus currently has 1,256 political prisoners, and all opposition leaders are either in jail or in exile
BIALYSTOK: Having missed almost four years of her son’s life while incarcerated in a Belarusian prison, Irina Schastnaya still wants to zip up the 14-year-old’s coat, struggling to digest how tall he grew in her absence.
German was 10 when security services broke into their home in Minsk, raiding the flat and arresting his mother in front of him for challenging authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule.
“I managed to say to him: ‘German don’t worry, everything will be fine,” she told AFP, recalling the November 2020 morning that “changed our lives forever.”
Her arrest was just one of a huge crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Lukashenko after tens of thousands protested his 2020 election victory, claiming widespread fraud.
In power since 1994, the Moscow ally is set to secure another term in power this weekend in an election with no real competition.
The Viasna rights group says Belarus currently has 1,256 political prisoners, and all opposition leaders are either in jail or in exile.
Within days of Schastnaya’s 2020 arrest, German’s father fled the country with the boy — settling in Kyiv, before leaving for Poland when it became clear Russia may invade Ukraine.
Schastnaya was sentenced to four years for editing a Telegram channel critical of the government.
Sent to Penal Colony Number Four in the city of Gomel, she was made to sew military and construction uniforms at the prison factory.
But she spent most of the time “thinking of German.”
They were allowed one video call a month — under the close watch of a prison officer.
“He did not like those calls,” she said. “He could literally see the person listening in the frame.”
They were reunited in September 2024, when Schastnaya was released and fled Belarus to join her family in Poland’s Bialystok — close to Belarus and long a hub for exiles.
“When I opened the door, I saw this tall guy,” she told AFP, still visibly shaken.
“It’s like heaven and earth. It’s not the same mothering... He was 10 when I was arrested, he still held my hand when we walked in the street.”
Like other ex-prisoners AFP spoke to, Schastnaya now has one wish: to get those who remain behind bars out — by all “possible and impossible” means.
Schastnaya says her son has adapted to life in Poland.
But she has not.
She often drives up to the nearby Belarus border, “just to have a look.”
A few months ago, she was in prison, sleeping on the top bunk in a room with some 30 women.
Like all political prisoners, her uniform and bed was marked with a “yellow label,” signifying a “tendency for extremism and other destructive activities,” she said.
After being released she decided to flee, fearing she would “not be free for long” or could be barred from leaving.
She is encouraged by a wave of pre-election pardonings back home, hoping more will come.
“We have to get them out any way possible,” she said.
“Some people have not seen their kids in years.”
In Poland’s Gdansk, former political prisoner Kristina Cherenkova, 34, has been scouring for information of those recently pardoned.
Authorities do not release names, but information trickles out through relatives and lawyers.
A wedding decorator, Cherenkova took part in 2020 protests in her small town of Mazyr and refused to leave Belarus when the crackdown started.
She was eventually arrested in 2022 for a social media post criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it launched in part from Belarusian territory.
Cherenkova also ended up in the Gomel prison, before being released last year.
“Around 10 percent of the women are political prisoners there,” she estimated.
“I am happy to see some of the names released. But there are a lot of people left, many friends.”
While in prison, she said she witnessed pardonings being delayed by slow Soviet-like bureaucracy.
Daria Afanasyeva, a Belarusian feminist living in Warsaw freed last year, also said “everything should be done” to secure freedom for more political prisoners — “including talks with the regime.”
“It’s not just one person in prison, it’s their whole family,” the pink-haired activist said, adding that many feel intense “guilt” for relatives suffering on the outside.
Arrested in 2021, Afanasyeva said the solidarity among political prisoners helped her through her 2.5-year sentence.
“Thanks to the KGB for getting me a best friend,” she joked.
But the prison ordeal still “eats up” her life.
“There is snow in Warsaw, people are happy... But I’m just thinking that if there’s snow in the prison, the girls there are clearing it.”
Afghan women’s group hails court’s move to arrest Taliban leaders for persecution of women
- The Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness called the ICC decision a “great historical achievement”
An Afghan women’s group on Friday hailed a decision by the International Criminal Court to arrest Taliban leaders for their persecution of women.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced Thursday he had requested arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials, including the leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade.
In a statement, the Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness celebrated the ICC decision and called it a “great historical achievement.”
“We consider this achievement a symbol of the strength and will of Afghan women and believe this step will start a new chapter of accountability and justice in the country,” the group said.
The Taliban government has yet to comment on the court’s move.
Also Friday, the UN mission in Afghanistan said it was a “tragedy and travesty” that girls remain deprived of education.
“It has been 1,225 days — soon to be four years — since authorities imposed a ban that prevents girls above the age of 12 from attending school,” said the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva. “It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education.”
Afghanistan is the only country in the world that explicitly bars women and girls from all levels of education, said Otunbayeva.
Philippine military says US missile deployment to boost readiness, help regional security
- Spokesperson: ‘The primary objective of this deployment is to strengthen Philippine military readiness’
- The Typhon launchers can fire multi-purpose missiles up to thousands of kilometers
MANILA: The deployment of the US military’s Typhon missile launchers in the Philippines was in line with Washington’s longstanding defense ties with the country, the Philippine armed forces said on Friday.
“The primary objective of this deployment is to strengthen Philippine military readiness, improve our familiarization and interoperability with advanced weapon systems, and support regional security,” armed forces spokesperson Francel Margareth Padilla said in a statement. Her remarks came after a Reuters report that the US military has moved the launchers, which have mid-range capability (MRC), to another location in the Philippines.
The weapon’s presence on Philippine territory drew sharp rebukes from China when it was first deployed in April 2024 during military exercises. Beijing accused the Philippines on Thursday of creating tension and confrontation in the region, urging it to “correct its wrong practices.”
Treaty allies the United States and the Philippines “coordinate closely on all aspects of the MRC deployment, including its positioning,” Padilla said.
The Typhon launchers can fire multi-purpose missiles up to thousands of kilometers such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, capable of hitting targets in both China and Russia from the Philippines. The SM-6 missiles it also carries can strike air or sea targets more than 200 km (165 miles) away. “These arrangements reflect shared operational considerations and mutual consultations between our two nations,” Padilla said.
