Japan/Taiwan/Asia in 2024

  Japan's semiconductor industry is getting a boost from Taiwanese chip companies' expansion here to support a new TSMC (2330.TW) plant.

 Shifting alliances and priorities in the global chip industry are on the increase with the United States pushing to limit China's progress in cutting-edge semiconductors and strengthen its other partnerships. 

Is Japan going to expand its military, too?

Feb 29, 2024

Sri Lanka may stop visa extensions for Russian an Ukranian tourists trying to escape the war. The Tourism ministry has been receiving complaints about some Russian tourists running illegal businesses in the southern part of the country.

March 2, 2024

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and coast guard have intensified patrols at the border to deter more refugees from the Myanmar civil war.

March 12, 2024

Hey Joe Biden: Since you gave the Taliban control in 2021, Afghan females have lost access to education & employment, and face arbitrary arrests over how they wear their hijabs.

March 18, 2024

Pakistan unleashed airstrikes on hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside Afghanistan. This occurred two days after a suicide bombing targeted a Pakistan army post near the Afghan border.

May 9, 2024

Pakistan's military claims a suicide bomb attack in March in Pakistan's northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, that killed five Chinese engineers, was planned in Afghanistan by an Afghan national.

Taliban issues a denial

May 21, 2024

 Iran's Supreme National Security Council has allocated funds for the construction of a concrete wall and a border fence in Central Khorasan. Turkey built a wall along its border with Afghanistan.

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan when the USA left has been  the major trigger for the building of these walls.

May 31, 2024

Rasoulof, an Iranian filmmaker on temporary home arrest, fled to Germany. His cellmates told him about a secret route over the mountains to the border , which he took to freedom.

Rasoulof chose Germany for his exile because "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" was being edited in Hamburg He had lived in Germany once , so his information was on file with the German authorities, and they were able to ID him without his passport, which the Iranian police had seized.

June 13, 2024

Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's main opposition leader, was indicted on bribery charges in an alleged scheme to use Ssangbangwoo, an underwear maker, to transfer funds to North Korea to promote a commercial project.

June 28, 2024

Bye ,bye what remains of Hong Kong's autonomy. School kids in HK criticized for singing the Chinese national anthem too softly.

 Here's the goal: "unifying thoughts" and "gathering strength for building a strong country".

July 3, 2024

Break-dancing sessions for senior citizens is all the rage in Tokyo. 🙄

July 10, 2024

 Beijing courts can issue the death penalty to "Taiwan independence" supporters. This includes trials in- absentia.

China claims the  new guidelines target a small number of die-hard 'Taiwan independence' separatists."

July 15, 2024

 Alice Guo, mayor of Bambon in the Philippines, who has been accused of being a Chinese spy has gone into hiding,  She's ignored Senate subpoenas  about scam centers being used as cover for text scams, human trafficking etc, in her town.

Ri Khu, a senior North Korean diplomat based in Cuba, defected with his wife and child to South Korea in November. No further details other than  he flew out of Cuba with his family. That's wild using Cuba  as the starting point of an escape from Communism. 

July 27, 2024

Ok China: MDNAA controls Lashio, Mynamar, about 74 miles from the Chinese border. Perhaps it's time to place a call to the Burma junta , who has lost control of 80% of the country.

Aug 1, 2024

Most of the migrants traveled from Turkey to breakaway north Cyprus and then attempted to cross into Cyprus before being barred by Cypriot authorities and left in a buffer zone. UNHCR expects Cyprus to take them. How about calling Ergodan and sending them back to Turkey.

Aug 5, 2024

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country yesterday. I bet most of the UK hopes Starmer does the same thing.

Aug 19, 2024

Myanmar authorities released Hiroshi Kasamatsu, a Japanese Aeon manager who was sentenced  to one year in prison for violating rice price controls.

Aug 23, 2024

Hey Joe Biden: The Taliban set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” in 2021 and just banned women’s voices and bare faces in public.

Aug 26, 2024

Japan's scrambled jets against a Chinese Y9 reconnaissance aircraft that breached its airspace this morning over the Danjo Islands to the west of the southern island of Kyushu

Sept 10 2024

Consider yourself lucky: David Missal, a German citizen , graduate of Hong Kong U, and member of a pro-Tibet NGO, was refused entry to Hong Kong

Sept 20, 2024

Has anyone asked Kamala about the Taliban being in control of 39 Afghan embassies globally?

Nov 10, 2024

Communist China welcomed Hlaing, the Mynamar military junta chief, for talks, but it sure feels like the Junta is collapsing and this move will fuel the Burmese rebels.

Nov 19, 2024

XI  warns Biden: Taiwan, “democracy and human rights,” the Chinese communist system, and China’s development “rights” are the four red lines. Second item is hilarious coming from XI.

Dec 6, 2024

 The Taliban terror militia that financed its activities by drug trafficking has stepped up enforcement on its ban of growing opium poppy in Afghanistan. Rural revolt may be brewing.

Dec 17 2024

Burma junta has lost the western border,  which divides Myanmar from Bangladesh, to the Arakan Army. You can bet China is pushing  the Junta into peace talks.

Dec 29, 2024

Indian villages deter wild elephants with lemon trees, mint plants, etc, which  trigger them to re-route.

Jan 6, 2025

In the early 1900s, France ruled Indochina, which included present-day Cambodia.

Indochina ceded Koh Kood island to Thailand(Siam) in the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907, but Indochina went defunct by the mid 1970s.

However, Cambodia claimed its side of the maritime boundaries from the treaty included the southern part of the island. 

Gas and Oil  reserves are on Koh Kood island.

Jan 24, 2025

 Nice try by ICC , but its warrant for Akhundzada, accusing him of persecution of women and girls, is going nowhere. He rarely travels outside Afghanistan.

Feb 5, 2025

ASEAN tells Myanmar’ junta its plan to hold an election is a mistake  amid an escalating civil war. Junta could care less.

Feb 17, 2025

DOS deletes "we do not support Taiwan independence" and mentions support for Taiwan's membership in international organizations "where applicable".  Mainland wants the USA to correct its mistakes.

Feb 25, 2025

Japan and PI boost military ties to deal with China, who states control of more than 90% of the South China Sea, where PI, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia,  and Brunei have competing territorial claims.

March 11, 2025

 Dalai Lama states his successor will be born in the “free world,” which is outside China. Beijing ain't happy.

March 12, 2025

BLA thinks its Jesse James and continues to attack passenger trains in Pakistan. It wants independence for Balochistan, one of Pakistan's most mineral-rich but low-population provinces. 

Yesterday, freed hostages walked for hours to reach safety after being forced to leave behind relatives.

March 13, 2025

PI Paybacks: Marcos turns Duerte over to ICC for prosecution. ICC is intended to be a "backup" to domestic court systems . Why doesn't PI prosecute Duerte if they have a case?

April 3, 2025

Joint USA-PI military exercises, will be conducted in northern Luzon, the region of the Philippines nearest Taiwan, later this month. USA approves the sale of twenty F-16 fighter jets worth $5.58B to PI.

April 9, 2025

Tyrannical China provides a morning chuckle by calling for the world to unite against Trump's trade tyranny. Ask Hong Kong citizens!

April 28, 2025

Myanmar's capital city Nay Pyi Taw will be redrawn after the earthquake last month.Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said that buildings which collapsed were built on soft soil.

May 23, 2025

North Korea's Kim Jong Un described the failed launch of a new naval destroyer , a "criminal act caused by absolute carelessness." I wonder if he gives someone the death penalty.

Some sections of the warship's bottom were crushed.

July 7, 2025

 Iran tells many Afghans to leave or face arrest ,and one of the reasons is a claim that Israel has recruited Afghans as spies,

July 18, 2025

North Korea bans foreigners from Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area, not too long after Lavrov, the Russian FM, started promoting it. 🤔

July 22, 2025

31 KMT lawmakers in Taiwan face  recall votes over their ties to mainland China. If a recall passes, a by-election will be held within 3 months to elect a replacement.

July 24, 2025

Cambodia and Thailanda are clashing again. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple. In 1962, the ICOJ recognized Cambodian sovereignty over the temple. Ruling was reaffirmed in 2013.

Aug 4, 2025

Taking notice: The Philippine and Indian navies sailed together for the first time in the South China Sea.

Aug 10, 2025

Iran thinks it can block a planned corridor which passes near its border in the Caucasus. It's part of a USA-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Velayati , an adviser to the Iran Supreme leader, claims  the corridor will open the way for NATO to position itself “like a viper” between Iran and Russia.

August 15, 2025

Sara Duterte, the VP of PI,  remains the top choice in polling for President in the 2028 elections, while  no ally of Marcos Jr  is among the front-runners.

Sept 20, 2025

Afghanistan rejects USA return to Bagram airbase, which is one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles. However, Trump and the Taliban are chatting.

Oct 13, 2025

Taliban and Pakistani forces exchanged heavy fire across Afghanistan border after an alleged Pakistani air strike on Kabul on Oct 9. Two main border crossings ,Torkham in the north and Chaman in the south, are closed.

India is on a rampage and more on Asia

  Indian tax officials examined mobile phones and laptops used by some BBC editorial and administrative employees during an inspection at the British broadcaster's offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. Some are claiming this is in reprisal for a BBC documentary that raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's behavior in the last 20 years.

India will raise seven new battalions of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in the next few years to deal with brewing tensions with mainland China.

Feb 18, 2023

 On February 6 when a Filipino boat was attempting to take supplies to the Sierra Madre, a vessel that is used as a Filipino naval outpost in the South China Sea, a Chinese vessel intercepted it and used a laser device to temporarily blind the crew.

Laser weapons designed to damage eyesight are banned under UN convention, but when did Communist China care about bans.

Feb 26, 2023

Sometimes I forget about Japanese royalty. Naruhito, who was crowned emperor on May 1, 2019, after his father Akihito became the first Japanese emperor to abdicate in two centuries, gave his first public birthday address on Thursday.

March 8, 2023

 Joe Biden's legacy: Universities have reopened in Afghanistan but only for men.

March 20, 2023

China and Cambodia held military naval exercises for the first time in Cambodian waters. I started thinking about the Vietnam War, Mekong Delta, Khmer rouge. etc.

March 21, 2023

I'm a bit surprised that Japan PM Kishida is going as far as visiting Kyiv.  This follows Japan joining Western allies in imposing sanctions on Russia, sending defensive equipment, and offering refuge to those fleeing the Ukraine-Russia war.

April 13, 2023

I had to read this statement twice; Myanmar's military stated that if civilians were also killed in its air strike on a gathering in the Sagaing area, it was because they were being forced to help "terrorists".

April 17, 2023

Atiq Ahmed , former lawmaker in India's parliament who was convicted of kidnapping, was killed along with his brother while police were escorting them for a medical check-up. The assailants were posing as journalists. I keep thinking about Jack Ruby.

April 28, 2023

Many folks in India are offended and have been criticizing a cartoon in Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that they claim is racist and in bad taste. The cartoon shows a dilapidated Indian train, overflowing with passengers, overtaking a fancy Chinese train on a parallel track. Hell, the cartoon acknowledges India is surpassing Communist China. Gimme a break!

May 11, 2023

Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, will scrap Wong Kei-kwan's comic strip, which has been running since 1983, because it offends the mainland Commies. Censorship grows- no surprise.

June 8, 2023

EU is coming after palm oil and other products by demanding exact proof of which trees are cut down. Malaysia ,etc are its targets. Endless micro-management.

June 30, 2023

India and Philippines vow stronger cooperation dealing with mainland China’s regional claims in the South China Sea which center on a nine-dash line surrounding several islands and waters of disputed sovereignty. They've agreed to the placement an Indian defense attaché in Manila.

July 19, 2023

 Private Travis T. King of the USA Army "stumbles" into North Korea, but Kirby lectures us on abortion. What a Pentagon!

August 16, 2023

Spanish group Inditex will cut ties with Myanmar suppliers. Primark and Marks & Spencer did last year.  I doubt these moves will make the military junta snap to attention.

Sept 5, 2023

 Myanmar's junta will let Kyi rot in jail -her request for an outside physician denied.

Sept 25, 2023

The Philippines claim it will remove a Chinese floating barrier blocking fishing vessel access in the Scarborough Shoal. This will get ugly quickly.

Oct 11, 2023

Hong Kong’s business community struggles due to Beijing’s bounty on those with opposing views. Many in the legal sector are concerned about judicial independence, and some executives are concerned that Hong Kong is losing its business relevance to Singapore and Dubai.

Oct 17, 2023

Chinese and Japanese coast guard ships faced off in waters around disputed islands in the East China Sea

China claims it drove away several Japanese vessels that "illegally" entered territorial waters on Monday around islands, which it calls Diaoyu and is urging Japan to stop all "illegal activities" in the area. However, Japan controls the islands and calls them the Senkaku.

Oct 31, 2023

Pakistan has given illegal Afghan immigrants until November 1 to exit the country and will use force if the deadline is not met.

Nov 12, 2023

Burma Shave occurring too close to China.

Anti-junta offensive in Shan State, on Mynamar's northeast border near China, has displaced at least 50,000 people, with trade routes cut off and several towns seized.

China is asking for all sides to cease hostilities.

More China news: China detained Japanese executives Hiroshi Nishiyama, on suspicion of espionage in March, and he was arrested last month. This has Japanese employees wondering if it is safe to travel to China, Also, Japanese companies in China have been telling employees to keep a low profile.

Nov 27, 2023

South Korea suspends 2018 deal with North Korea and re-starts its aerial surveillance in response to the launch of a satellite by North Korea. NK has also had started to rebuild guard posts along the frontier.

Dec 15, 2023

 KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia, a former Taiwanese diplomat and one-time head of Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council, visited the mainland hoping his party can narrow the DPP, the ruling party, lead ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.

DPP response: "It is no wonder that international public opinion and Taiwan's people have questioned: does the KMT have to report everything to Beijing first?"

Dec 20, 2023

A Japanese court ordered the governor of Okinawa to approve the central government's modified plan for landfill work at the planned relocation site of a key USA Marine base on the southern island despite long running opposition by residents.

Jan 5, 2023

North Korea fired approximately 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast. This led to an emergency evacuation order for civilians on the border islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea confirmed the artillery firings which breached the maritime buffer zone that was set up to reduce border tensions.

South Korean military responded with live-fire artillery drills.

Jan 13, 2023

 William Lai, Keep Taiwan (Free of Communist China), is set to be Taiwan's next president. He is the first presidential candidate in Taiwan to get five million votes.

Jan 17, 2024

  Missiles from Iran targeted two bases in Pakistan of the militant group Jaish al Adl, a Sunni outfit. The Ayatollah is on a rampage in the area.

Jan 26, 2024

Kirin sees Japanese whiskey driving 50% export of premium brand, When I think whiskey Japan doesn't come to mind.

Feb 14 2024

 Myanmar Junta will implement military conscription and bring back retirees due to steep military personnel losses while it's battling a coordinated offensive by an alliance of three ethnic-minority insurgent groups.

Feb 20, 2024

Mainland China's top financial watchdogs' goal is to ensure that the sector adheres to Communist Party values- be wary Hong Kong! Their bumper sticker: socialist economy can work.

April 11, 2024

200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand on Thursday after a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance in Myawaddy, a border town. 

Thailand, which remains neutral, is concerned about the fighting spilling into its airspace and is taking in refugees.

Nov 10, 2024

Communist China welcomed Hlaing, the Mynamar military junta chief, for talks, but it sure feels like the Junta is collapsing and this move will fuel the Burmese rebels.

prior blog https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2021/10/focusing-on-asia-in-4q-of-2021.html