Headlines
With Taiwan hoping for swift delivery of a US$14 billion weapons sale approved by the U.S. Congress in January, a U.S. official said last week in a Senate hearing that foreign military sales are on pause to protect munitions stockpiles as conflict in Iran continues.
Chinese President Xi Jinping used his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump last week to reiterate that Taiwan remains the most sensitive issue in U.S.-China relations, and analysts told Radio Free Asia that the Taiwan issue will be front and center according to Beijing’s latest Five-Year plan.
The Solomon Islands’ choice of longtime opposition leader Matthew Wale as its new prime minister could be a sign that a diplomatic shift toward Canberra is likely, while the Pacific island nation still engages moderately with Beijing, experts told Radio Free Asia.
A growing push in Washington to restrict Chinese travel to the Northern Mariana Islands could kneecap economic recovery in the U.S. territory as it rebuilds from the havoc left last month by Super Typhoon Sinlaku, analysts and residents told Radio Free Asia.
The Philippines is actively upgrading facilities on two islands it controls in the disputed Spratly chain in the South China Sea, satellite images reviewed by Radio Free Asia revealed.
Desperate for a new source of income because his business was failing, a Filipino man in his mid-20s answered an online advertisement in 2024 for what he thought was a U.S.-based publication looking for a writer focusing on Philippine defense.
A rare visit by Taiwan’s coast guard minister to Taiping Island is part of Taipei’s strategy to assert its claim over the disputed South China Sea outpost and a move taken right out of Beijing’s “gray zone” playbook, analysts told Radio Free Asia.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape advanced his economic agenda while in China this week, but experts stressed that economic benefits from Chinese investment should not come at the expense of the environment or workers’ rights.
Fu Cong, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations and President of the UN Security Council for the month of May, briefs reporters on the programme of work for the month.
Regardless of how the current political crisis in the Solomon Islands unfolds, experts told Radio Free Asia that they anticipate no change in the country’s close-knit relationship with China.