By Nike ChingUpdated October 25, 2020 01:41 PM VOA
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo waves before boarding his plane departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Sept. 17, 2019.
STATE DEPARTMENT – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper departed for India Sunday to strengthen bilateral security cooperation as Washington looks to confront Chinese geopolitical and economic challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.
Besides New Delhi, the top U.S. diplomat is also traveling to Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia from October 25-30.
Continue reading on CVD >>
Updated 0946 GMT (1746 HKT) October 27, 2020US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) is greeted by US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster upon his arrival at an airport in New Delhi on October 26, 2020.
Hong Kong (CNN) The United States and India have reaffirmed their defensive and security relationship, as Washington continues to rally allies in Asia amid concerns over increased Chinese military activity in the region.
During a press conference Tuesday in the Indian capital, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh announced the signing of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), enabling greater information-sharing and further defense cooperation between the two countries.”
Hong Kong (CNN)Tens of thousands of US and Japanese troops will begin a massive island-landing exercise in the Pacific this week as part of joint military operations seen as a warning to China that Washington backs Tokyo over Beijing’s claim to Japanese-controlled islands.
Speaking aboard a Japanese warship Monday, Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of US Forces Japan, said the exercises would demonstrate the ability of the US-Japan alliance “to deliver combat troops to defend the Senkakus or respond to other crises or contingencies.”
Both Tokyo and Beijing claim the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyus in China, as their own, but Japan has administered them since 1972.
US-China frictions and the threat of American financial sanctions have renewed debate in Beijing about reducing dependence on the US dollar. China cut its holdings of US government debt to US$1.07 trillion in late August, the lowest level since March 2017, the US Department of Treasury says
China has long tried to undermine the US dollar’s dominant role in the international monetary system, despite the fact that the bulk of its reserves are in dollar-denominated assets. Photo: Reuters
File photo of two US-made Taiwanese F-16 fighter jets. (Photo: AFP/Sam Yeh)
22 Oct 2020 05:44PM
BEIJING: China threatened on Thursday (Oct 22) to retaliate against the latest US arms sale to Taiwan, as the island welcomed the weapons package but said it was not looking to get into an arms race with Beijing.
The Trump administration has ramped up support for Taiwan through arms sales and visits by senior US officials, adding to tensions between Beijing and Washington, already heightened by disagreements over the South China Sea, Hong Kong, human rights and trade.
(CNN Business) The United States government has labeled six more Chinese media companies operating in the US as foreign missions in the latest round of tit-for-tat between Beijing and Washington over restrictions on journalists.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying that the six media companies were “substantially or effectively controlled by a foreign government.”
”We’re not placing any restrictions on what these outlets can publish in the United States,” Pompeo said. “We simply want to ensure that American people, consumers of information, can differentiate between news written by a free press and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party itself. They’re not the same thing.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts on a face mask after speaking at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Oct. 21, 2020.
STATE DEPARTMENT – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarks on a week-long trip to South Asia on Sunday, as the United States looks to confront Chinese geopolitical and economic challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.
The top U.S. diplomat is traveling to New Delhi, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Male, Maldives; and Jakarta, Indonesia from October 25-30.
“On every stop I will discuss a broad range of bilateral topics, but also work to find out with each of those countries the best ways that we can make sure that we cooperate to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Pompeo told reporters Wednesday during a press briefing at the State Department.
Senior US human rights official named as special coordinator for Tibetan issues amid increasingly tense relations between Washington and Beijing.
Human rights activists say Beijing suppresses local culture, the Buddhist religion and minorities in Tibet [File: He Penglei/CNS via Reuters]
14 Oct 2020
The United States has appointed a senior human rights official as special coordinator for Tibetan issues, amid increasingly tense relations between Washington and Beijing.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that Robert Destro, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, would assume the additional post, which has been vacant since the start of President Donald Trump’s term in 2017.
By Adam TaylorOctober 15, 2020 at 12:00 AM EDT Washington Post
Taiwanese sailors at Kaohsiung’s Zuoying naval base in 2018. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
The U.S.-Taiwan security relationship has been purposely ambiguous for four decades. But amid increasing Chinese threats of invasion, America’s commitment to Taiwan needs to be clearer, the island’s de facto ambassador to the United States said this week.
“We need some degree of clarity,” Hsiao Bi-khim, an American-educated lawmaker who became representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington this summer, told Today’s WorldView.
Hong Kong (CNN) – Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on troops to “put all (their) minds and energy on preparing for war” in a visit to a military base in the southern province of Guangdong on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
During an inspection of the People’s Liberation Army Marine Corps in Chaozhou City, Xinhua said Xi told the soldiers to “maintain a state of high alert” and called on them to be “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure, and absolutely reliable.”
Taiwan is one of those flash points that has never flashed. The dispute over the island’s fate has had the potential to erupt into conflict between China and the United States for decades. But the feared Chinese invasion has never come. The situation has remained deadlocked for so long that Taiwan’s quandary often drifts into the background of Asian affairs, overshadowed by seemingly more-pressing concerns, such as North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and inflamed tensions between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed by Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung and USAID Acting Director Bradley Bessire in Hanoi on October 13.
Under the MoU, the USAID will also help the Vietnamese side further develop the national public service portal, an electric platform connecting the Government with people and enterprises.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. Pompeo is meeting Thursday with top Vatican officials, a day after tensions over U.S. opposition to the Vatican’s China policy spilled out in public. (Vatican Media via AP)
ROME (AP) — The U.S. and the Vatican butted heads over China on Thursday as the Holy See chafed at U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s public call to take a harsher stance against Chinese restrictions on religious freedom.
The State Department sought to play down the differences, but tensions were palpable during Pompeo’s two-day visit to Rome. The disagreement on China comes as the Vatican is heading into delicate negotiations with Beijing to extend its controversial 2018 accord over bishop nominations.
It is no longer politically wise to characterize China as a partner or friend.
By Justin Conrad, September 16, 2020, The Diplomat
Credit: Official White House photo
The year is not over, but it’s safe to say that 2020 has been a watershed. Even so, it may be difficult to grasp just how consequential the last several months have been for U.S.-China relations. As the many crises of 2020 recede into the past, it will become increasingly clear that we witnessed the most important sea change in U.S.-China relations in 50 years. Critically, this was the year that the tide of public opinion in the United States turned against China.
Continue reading on CVD >>
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) is greeted by US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster upon his arrival at an airport in New Delhi on October 26, 2020.
(
![Human rights activists say Beijing suppresses local culture, the Buddhist religion and minorities in Tibet [File: He Penglei/CNS via Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019-07-18T025504Z_80058370_RC19582F1990_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-TIBET.jpg?resize=770%2C513)
Credit: 
Đọt Chuối Non 