South East Asia

A surge of targeted killings and assassinations has swept Afghanistan, where violence has soared despite peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Many of those being targeted are civilians — journalists, rights activists, cultural figures, moderate religious leaders, and women in public roles.

China hit out on Friday at comments from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said the democratic island of Taiwan wasn’t a part of China, vowing to strike back at any attempts to harm its interests, while Taipei welcomed the top American diplomat’s support.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi may visit Japan later this month to meet his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi for talks on cooperation over the coronavirus crisis and the East China Sea situation, the Mainichi newspaper said on Saturday.

Asia-Pacific leaders voiced concern over the situation in the resource-rich South China Sea at a regional summit on Saturday, a Japanese government official said, as security tensions between the United States and China have shown no sign of easing.

The defense chiefs of Japan and the United States on Saturday confirmed that the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea fall under the scope of a security treaty between the two countries.

The United States on Friday urged Japan and South Korea to speak out against China’s treatment of minority Muslims and its actions toward Hong Kong and Taiwan, despite their trading relationships with Beijing.

Japan and the United States held negotiations in Washington on the cost-sharing agreement for Tokyo’s hosting of American troops, the Japanese government said Wednesday.

A prominent economic adviser to Japan’s prime minister says Tokyo should prepare for a “leaderless era” as U.S. global leadership gradually withers, and expand other strategic ties while bolstering its security alliance with Washington.

The Taliban say they expect President-elect Joe Biden to stick to a peace agreement the insurgent group sealed with the United States earlier this year to end the war in Afghanistan, America’s longest.

China’s Central Military Commission, which oversees the country’s armed forces, first proposed the law in late September. A draft text was subsequently released by China’s legislative body, the National People’s Congress, on Wednesday, as first reported by the National People’s Congress Observer website. The measure is open for public comment …