Far East Watch
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Chinese President Xi Jinping had stern words for President Trump on Taiwan as they met in Beijing on Thursday, warning of potential “clashes and even conflicts” if the issue isn’t “handled properly,” according to Chinese state media.
During their summit, the two leaders are seen as aiming to stabilize their trading relationship after last year’s trade war. They’re also grappling with uncertainty over the United States’ war with Iran. But the issue of Taiwan loomed large.
The closed-door session lasted roughly two hours and 15 minutes. The White House characterized the meeting as “good.”
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A military court on Thursday sentenced Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu to death with a two-year reprieve. This means their death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, without the possibility of sentence reduction or parole, Xinhua reports.
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Authorities are still investigating the reasons of the explosion, with negligence being suspected as a likely cause. Officials warned that the death toll is likely to climb as search and rescue operations continue.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and bypassing a legitimate Cabinet meeting before his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.
The conviction for obstruction of justice and other charges comes on top of a life sentence he has already received on rebellion charges stemming from his baffling authoritarian push, which triggered the most serious crisis for the country’s democracy in decades.
Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court said the conservative former president sidestepped a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law, falsified documents to conceal the lapse and deployed security officials “like a private army” to resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him in the weeks following his impeachment. Former President Yoon stood quietly as the verdict was delivered and made no comment.
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Chinese researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking ‘Zero-Carbon-Emission Direct Coal Fuel Cell’ (ZC-DCFC) that fundamentally transforms coal-based energy. Led by Xie Heping at Shenzhen University, this innovation bypasses traditional combustion – the process responsible for massive carbon emissions and energy loss in conventional power plants. By utilising electrochemical oxidation, the system converts coal’s chemical energy directly into electricity, as noted in the Energy Reviews journal.
This closed-loop technology not only prevents the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but also captures it in situ, converting it into valuable chemical feedstocks like synthesis gas or sodium bicarbonate. This development challenges long-standing assumptions about the environmental impact of coal, potentially providing a cleaner pathway for utilising vast fossil fuel reserves.
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During the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, a 26-year-old company commander’s unit was pinned down by a fortified hilltop. After frontal assaults failed, the junior officer made an extraordinary request: an entire battalion, four times the size of his own unit, for a jungle flanking maneuver. The regimental commander agreed. The surprise assault broke the Vietnamese defense. This company commander’s pedigree was as formidable as his tactics: His father was a founding general who had just retired as head of the Chinese military’s General Logistics Department.
Five years later, that same officer commanded the regiment tasked with the main assault at the Battle of Laoshan, the largest engagement of the Sino-Vietnamese border war. His attack plan, the military’s first complete infantry-artillery coordination plan since the Cultural Revolution, required massed artillery support far exceeding what any single regimental commander could normally secure. During a massive counterattack, his regiment held the line against six enemy regiments. His competence was real. So was the informal network of guanxi — the entrenched personal connections and reciprocal obligations — that put him in a position to demonstrate it.
The officer was Zhang Youxia. In January 2026, nearly half a century after his triumph in Vietnam, he became the most senior general to fall in General Secretary Xi Jinping’s unprecedented purge.
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Beijing slammed on Monday an EU plan aimed to bolster the bloc’s industries against fierce competition from China, vowing countermeasures if it is enacted.
The EU unveiled in March new “Made in Europe” rules for companies trying to access public funds in strategic sectors including cars, green tech and steel, obliging firms to meet minimum thresholds for EU-made parts.
The proposal, held up for months by wrangling over the measures, is a key part of a European Union drive to regain its competitive edge, reduce its industrial decline and stave off hundreds of thousands of job losses.
Beijing’s commerce ministry said on Monday that it had submitted comments to the European Commission on Friday, expressing China’s “serious concerns” regarding the act it called “systemic discrimination“.
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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean prosecutors Friday requested a 30-year prison term for ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol over allegations he deliberately tried to escalate tensions with North Korea in 2024 by ordering drone flights over Pyongyang as he sought to create justifiable conditions for martial law at home.
Yoon is charged with benefiting an adversary and abusing his powers, which are among a long list of indictments against the conservative former leader over his short-lived imposition of martial law in South Korea in December 2024.
The request came in the closing stages of a trial at the Seoul Central District Court, where a team of investigators led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said Yoon and his top defense officials were responsible for alleged drone infiltrations into North Korea, about two months before he imposed martial law while portraying the liberals as North Korea-sympathizing, “anti-state” forces.
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Dual-use items are goods, software or technologies that have both civilian and military applications, including certain rare earth elements that are essential for making drones and chips.
The ministry also said foreign organisations and individuals are prohibited from transferring or providing dual-use items originating from China to the seven entities and any related activities must be stopped immediately.
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South Korean police are seeking to arrest music mogul Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS, as they expand an investment fraud investigation
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean police said Tuesday they are seeking to arrest music mogul Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS, as they expand an investigation into allegations that he illegally gained more than $100 million in an investor fraud scheme.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that it has asked prosecutors to request a court warrant for Bang’s arrest. Representatives of Bang’s agency, HYBE, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bang has been under investigation since November over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by telling them HYBE had no plans to go public, inducing them to sell their shares to a private equity fund before the company proceeded with an initial public offering. Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang around 200 billion won ($136 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.