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PLA

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smokes a cigarette before departing Pyongyang by special train to China in this image released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 2, 2025
North Korea’s Kim arrives in Beijing for debut on multilateral stage
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to join Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a military parade on Wednesday.
Members of the Indian delegation, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (third from left), attend a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, China, on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 2, 2025
Indian delegation to Shanghai summit will give China's parade a miss
Indian government sources say India regards the military parade as an event marking China's victory over Japan in World War II, and that it has no intention of hurting Tokyo.
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (third from right),  chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, poses for pictures alongside U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (third from left) and others upon arriving at the Songshan Airport in Taipei on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 30, 2025
Senior U.S. senator expects joint weapons production with Taiwan
A Taiwan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that co-production of weapons was "very important."
A Y-20 tanker aircraft and Chengdu J-20 jet fighters fly in a formation during a flyover rehearsal ahead of a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Aug. 24.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 30, 2025
Beyond the 'bling,' China aims for deterrence in military show
Questions remain about how effectively China's armed forces — untested since a bloody border conflict with Vietnam in 1979 — could knit its gear together in a future conflict.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, speaks next to U.S. Sen Deb Fischer at Songshan Airport in Taipei on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 30, 2025
Taiwan has right to be free and 'preserve self-determination,' senior U.S. senator says
Taiwan has the right to be free and "preserve self-determination," U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Armed Services Committee and one of the strongest advocates for Taiwan in the U.S. Congress, told the island's president Friday.
A Typhon Midrange Capability launcher arrives as part of the capability’s first deployment into theater on Northern Luzon, in the Philippines, in April 2024.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2025
U.S. to temporarily deploy powerful Typhon missile system to Japan for drills
The intermediate-range missile system will be deployed to the U.S. Marine Air Station Iwakuni as a part of the Resolute Dragon exercise.
Jet fighters from the North American Aerospace Defense Command intercept a Chinese long-range H-6 bomber operating in the Alaska air defense identification zone in July 2024.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 27, 2025
Joint Sino-Russian patrols push Japan to rethink defense posture
Over the past two years, joint China-Russia overflights have become increasingly sophisticated and extended.
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 25, 2025
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
The moves come as Manila settles into a view that alliances, geography and economic interests would inevitably pull it into any U.S. conflict with China over the island.
A soldier speaks to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on July 10.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 24, 2025
Taiwan voters reject lawmaker recalls, clouding defense budget
None of the seven opposition Kuomintang legislators targeted in Saturday’s second round of recall elections by the Democratic Progressive Party were removed.
Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of the parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, which will be held on Sept. 3, in Beijing on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Aug 24, 2025
History, triumph and trauma to take center stage at China's WWII military parade
The event will be a projection of China's growing military might amid deep-seated mistrust in the West and territorial rows with neighboring countries.
U.S. President Donald Trump greeets Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 16, 2025
Trump says Xi told him he wouldn’t invade Taiwan while U.S. leader is in office
But the U.S. president said Xi had also delivered an implicit warning about Taiwan’s future, telling him that he is “very patient, and China is very patient.”
This handout video grab released and taken on Monday by the Philippine Coast Guard shows a Chinese Coast Guard ship with a damaged bow following an incident with a Chinese Navy vessel, as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 13, 2025
China's military says it 'drove away' U.S. destroyer near Scarborough Shoal
The shoal has been a major source of tension in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
Senior diplomat Liu Jianchao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department widely seen as China's next foreign minister, has been detained for unclear reasons, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Xi’s ‘probe’ of senior diplomat puts China foreign policy team in doubt
Liu Jianchao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, has been detained for unclear reasons.
Visitors have their photo taken by a portrait of President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum in Beijing on Oct. 20, 2023. The Chinese leader’s crackdown on military corruption reveals how deep his concerns run, not only about battlefield readiness, but about political survival, as well.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 11, 2025
Xi looks to tighten grip after scandals shake China’s military elite
Outwardly, China’s military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Every few months, China unveils new weapons, like a prototype...
This handout video grab released and taken on August 11, 2025 by the Philippine Coast Guard shows an incident between a Chinese Navy vessel (left) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 11, 2025
Chinese vessels collide while pursuing Philippine boat in South China Sea
Video released by Manila showed a China Coast Guard ship and a much larger vessel bearing the number 164 on its hull colliding with a loud crash.
Russian and Chinese naval officers take part in a ceremony Thursday ahead of the start of joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan, following the arrival of Chinese military vessels in Vladivostok, Russia.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 3, 2025
China and Russia start joint military drills in Sea of Japan
The Joint Sea-2025 exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas attends a meeting in Brussels on July 14.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2025
China singled out at EU-Japan summit
The two sides reiterated their opposition to “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion” in the East and South China seas.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts a drone demonstration at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on July 10.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2025
Pentagon looks to unleash ‘military drone dominance’
U.S. defense chief Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to fast-track the adoption of a boosted number of small drones deployed across the force.
Elbridge Colby (center), then-nominee to be the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for policy, is introduced by U.S. Vice President JD Vance (left), during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington in March.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 16, 2025
Pentagon No. 3 praises Japan defense report, but vows to make alliance more 'equitable'
The Pentagon's top policy official Elbridge Colby labeled the defense white paper “an important, clear-eyed strategic assessment from our close ally."
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 15, 2025
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
The annual defense white paper says that U.S. actions under Trump will “significantly impact” the Indo-Pacific region and “will require continued attention.”

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