Nancy Pelosi Meets With Dalai Lama, Despite China’s Criticism

Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, addressing the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, on Tuesday. Credit: Reuters

A high-level U.S. congressional delegation, including the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Dalai Lama at his Indian home on Wednesday, a visit that was condemned in advance by China’s government, which considers the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist.

Nancy Pelosi Meets With Dalai Lama, Despite China’s Criticism

Related:

US lawmakers pass Tibet policy bill that questions China’s claims over region

Tibet

Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

Source

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) clarified its definition of “first strike,” saying it considered any Chinese military asset crossing into Taiwan’s territorial borders as an act of aggression.

Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that this definition was updated shortly after former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan — when China held live-fire military drills around the nation to express its dissatisfaction.

The Taiwan Strait is “on the brink” of a heightened level of alert, Chiu said at a Foreign and National Defense Committee session on Thursday (March 7). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has ramped up the frequency of its air and naval operations. He said PLA activities are now creeping closer to Taiwan and have slowly entered “gray areas” from the north and south.

To deter China from escalating tensions in the strait, U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday (March 5) requiring the U.S. Department of the Treasury to terminate the United States-People’s Republic of China Income Tax Convention if Beijing attacks Taiwan.

Related:

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast

Philippines Gunning For Fast And Massive Military Build-Up + More

Full video.

MANILA –“We are not satisfied with minimum [deterrence capability alone]…movement is life, stagnation is death,” Colonel Micheal Logico, a top strategist at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), recently told this reporter when asked about the country’s evolving defense strategy.“We [need] to elevate ourselves into a world-class armed forces,” he added.

Philippines Gunning For Fast And Massive Military Build-Up

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Hungry Pinoys highest so far under Marcos government

Philippines Conducts Joint Exercises With U.S. In S. China Sea

Batanes eyed for Balikatan military drills

Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast

US policies pushing China, Philippines to brink of conflict

US policies pushing China, Philippines to brink of conflict

The China-Philippines maritime dispute does not, in of itself, reflect anything approaching an existential conflict. It has, however, become an increasingly dangerous proxy and potential flashpoint for underlying China-U.S. tensions in the South China Sea.

FYI, this article is full of disinformation. I’m posting it to point out that there’s an information war going on in the South China Sea (using embedded journalists, civil society activists, and various US think tanks). The Philippines plans on building a military base, on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, to replace the BRP Sierra Madre (which is about to break apart). Marcos is also re-starting oil exploration, in the Reed Bank, which is part of the disputed territory.

Related:

US Shapes Philippines into Southeast Asia’s “Ukraine”

Why the US is Picking a Fight with China in the South China Sea

Beijing rejects tribunal’s ruling in South China Sea case

Paul Reichler, of the law firm Foley Hoag LLP, who who coordinated the Philippines’ legal team, said: “The tribunal’s ruling not only benefits the Philippines, it also benefits other states bordering the South China Sea like Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. If China’s nine-dash line is invalid as to the Philippines, it is equally invalid to those states and, indeed, the rest of the international community.”

Paul S. Reichler

President Biden should not run again in 2024

President Biden should not run again in 2024

Biden has never been good at saying no. He should have resisted the choice of Harris, who was a colleague of his beloved son Beau when they were both state attorneys general. He should have blocked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has done considerable damage to the island’s security. He should have stopped his son Hunter from joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company and representing companies in China — and he certainly should have resisted Hunter’s attempts to impress clients by getting Dad on the phone.

He shouldn’t have overthrown a democratically-elected president!

Yellen secretly yells for China’s help

By Herman Tiu Laurel

The US and its President Biden has been looking sillier and sillier to America’s global audience the past months. Take the inane “Chinese spy balloon” hullabaloo the shadowy anti-China political-media network concocted in February, Pentagon just a few days ago, on June 30, now officially admits “did not collect intelligence while flying over the country.” Yet, that spy thriller concoction delayed Blinken’s “reconciliation” visit to China by five months, pushing through only on June 18.

Yellen secretly yells for China’s help

Related:

[2008] China’s Hu, Bush discuss financial crisis (archived)