Amid growing tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, the U.S. military Wednesday began moving some parts of the THAAD anti-missile defense system onto a deployment site in South Korea, Seoul said.

“South Korea and the United States have been working to secure an early operational capability of the THAAD system in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile threat,” South Korea’s defense ministry said in a statement.

The first elements of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system were delivered to South Korea in early March. On Wednesday, South Korea’s defense ministry said other elements were moved onto a deployment site — a former golf course — in Seongju county.

South Korea and the United States said the sole purpose of the advanced THAAD system is to defend against missile launches from North Korea.

While China opposes THAAD, calling it a threat to its own security, it has spoken out against North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests and has supported U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.

Failed missile test

Most recently, on April 16, North Korea conducted a failed missile test in defiance of increased U.S. warnings that there would be serious consequences for such provocative actions, including a possible military response. North Korea also is believed to be preparing for a sixth nuclear weapons test.

On Tuesday, North Korea marked the 85th anniversary of the founding of its military with a “massive fire drill” in the eastern port city of Wonsan, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.

The celebration came on the same day a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Michigan, arrived in South Korea, and the navies of those two countries joined Japan in conducting military exercises in the waters west of the Korean Peninsula.

The naval exercises are scheduled to last through Wednesday, the same day President Donald Trump has invited all 100 U.S. senators to the White House for a classified briefing that will primarily concern North Korea.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will conduct the briefing.

While lawmakers often receive classified briefings on Capitol Hill, it is rare for them to take place at the White House and for the entire Senate to be involved in one event.

Wednesday’s briefing will be held in the auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

‘A big world problem’

During a White House lunch with ambassadors of U.N. Security Council member states on Monday, the U.S. president called unacceptable the “status quo in North Korea.” Trump said the Security Council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“North Korea is a big world problem, and it’s a problem we have to finally solve,” the president added. “People have put blindfolds on for decades, and now it’s time to solve the problem.”

Several U.S. senators were looking forward to hearing from the White House on North Korea.

Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters, “I hope that we hear their policy as to what their objectives are, and how we can accomplish that hopefully without dropping bombs.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Reuters the Trump administration should be telling senators if it has a “red line.”

VOA’s Steve Herman at the White House and Brian Padden in Seoul contributed to this report.​
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Afghanistan’s largest television station has reported last Friday’s deadliest-ever assault by the Taliban on a major military base in northern Balkh province left more than 250 soldiers dead and accused authorities of “hiding the truth.”

The government has been under fire for refusing to reveal the number of casualties several days after the attack targeting the Afghan National Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps in the provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The deputy chairman of the Afghan Senate, the upper house of the parliament, informed lawmakers on Sunday that security officials told him the death toll stood at around 131, while provincial politicians had put it at more than 150 from the outset.

“Based on information gathered from different sources, so far, the identity of 256 soldiers from 10 provinces have been confirmed,” TOLOnews reported Tuesday, quoting “credible” sources.

The TV station also named the provinces to which the bodies of the victims have been dispatched for burials.

Possible impact on morale cited

Government officials privately have insisted that releasing the death toll could undermine the morale of the Afghan army battling a resurgent Taliban. But critics assert the government was disrespecting the slain soldiers by withholding the number of casualties.

Officials and insurgents say a group of 10 heavily-armed Taliban fighters wearing army uniforms, and accompanying an allegedly wounded soldier, stormed the base and carried out the massacre. The attack mainly targeted a dining hall and mosque deep inside the facility where hundreds of Afghan soldiers were offering special Friday prayers.

Witnesses and security sources said that Taliban assailants drove up to the base in two army vehicles mounted with machine guns, waving fake identification cards and claiming they were bringing back a seriously injured soldier from the frontline. Some of the attackers detonated explosives strapped to their bodies while others were gunned down by Afghan commandos before the hours-long siege ended.

Raid renews criticism

The brazen raid has renewed criticism of Afghan security institutions’ ability to stabilize the country. The carnage prompted the defense minister and the army chief to step down on Monday. President Ashraf Ghani has also removed several corps commanders, including that of the Shaheen Corps, following the attack.

A high-level investigation is underway to determine how the attackers managed to enter the highly-fortified military facility in Mazar-i-Sharif and whether they had received “inside help.”

At least four Afghan soldiers are suspected of having helped the attackers but they remain at large, according to officials.

American military advisors and trainers were also present at a different location inside the regional military headquarters.

The Taliban, while claiming responsibility for Friday’s attack, said more than 500 soldiers were killed or wounded. It went on to say the assault on the army base was a prelude to its coming “spring offensive” in Afghanistan.  

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, during his day-long visit to Kabul on Monday, also warned “2017’s going to be another tough year for the valiant Afghan security forces and the international troops.”
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It was the most stunning political victory of the 21st century, one that brought shocked concern in many parts of the world and cheers in others. One uncontroversial certainty was that it would cause reverberations around the globe.

Donald Trump campaigned on an “America First” platform, but has found himself as president drawn into thorny geopolitical complexities aplenty in the first 100 days of his administration. Relations with Russia plummeted to “an all-time low,” as Trump himself described it, in the wake of the U.S. missile strikes on the Syrian government’s airfield in response to a deadly chemical attack. The administration’s Syria policy and how to handle President Bashar al-Assad seesawed.

A window of opportunity appeared with China after Trump hosted President Xi Jinping for a summit at his Florida estate, but tensions on the Korean Peninsula soared over North Korea’s nuclear program. Mexico showed consternation and agitation over the president’s planned border wall, but gave no sign it would pay for the structure as Trump had repeatedly promised voters.

Trump’s travel ban rocked refugees and asylum-seekers in several Muslim-majority nations, though it was blocked by federal courts at home. There were echoes of darker U.S.-Iran days, but nothing yet that would derail the landmark nuclear deal, as the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued to simmer.

Associated Press journalists in North Korea, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Israel, the West Bank, Russia, Germany and Mexico have gauged the global temperature by asking people five questions:

Do you feel more secure under a Trump presidency, or in danger?

Yuliya Konyakhina, Moscow: “I have a feeling that the world became more dangerous in general, not because Trump got elected, but in general it (the world) became more dangerous. When I go down to a metro I have sort of thoughts that something bad can happen.”

Shahrzad Ebrahimi, Tehran, Iran: “[The world] is 100 percent a more dangerous place. The U.S. threats to the world had been lessened during [Barack] Obama’s presidency and policies of that country were based on moving toward peace for at least eight years. But as soon as Trump took office, demonstrations began against him and the situations in Syria, Palestine, bombings, military and war threats all got worse. The more he sticks with his current policies, the more insecure and non-peaceful the world, especially the Middle East, will become. As you can see, now he is exchanging verbal blows with North Korea. Sometimes one can assume that this situation can even trigger a third world war.”  

Kim Hyang Byol, Pyongyang, North Korea: “It’s coming to 100 days since Trump became president, but we don’t care who the president is. The problem is whether they’re going to stop their hostile policy against North Korea, and whether they will do anything to help us reunify our country.”

Rustam Magamedov, Moscow: “[Trump is] agent provocateur, but in reality, he is just a good showman, as they say in the U.S. The fact that he became a president is rather scary, because he can start a war. It seems like that he is already moving toward the Korean borders. I think it is dangerous, first of all for Russia, because as a president and politician he is a bad person, a bad politician who has little understanding of politics.

Dan Mirkin, Tel Aviv, Israel: “Yeah, well maybe a little bit more dangerous. But I think that the steps that he took should have been taken a long time ago. And if it became more dangerous, then it’s not only because of Trump. Although, he has other drawbacks.”

Is the Trump administration more bark than bite?

Diane Lallouz, Tel Aviv: “It’s true that Donald Trump has a loud bark and you can say it’s more bark than bite. But, not really. It’s enough that he takes a few actions as opposed to not doing anything. He talks a lot, sometimes way too much and right off the sleeve without actually thinking about it and that may be a problem. But, at least the world knows that Donald Trump is going to take action when required.”

Raya Sauerbrun, Tel Aviv: “If it’s barking or if it’s doing, at least it shows that it’s doing something.  If it will sustain for a long time, we don’t know.”

Mohamed Shire, Mogadishu, Somalia: “This might be a new step; this might be a new strategy. We probably have to wait and see, but I think the United States administration needs to be very careful in just getting involved in Somalia without having a clear strategy and program that they align with the current Somali government.”

Yadollah Sobhani, Tehran: “Trump comes out with a lot of hype at first but eventually backs down from some of his stances on issues such as Russia, Middle East, Syria and so on. His inconsistent actions have proven that his bark is worse than his bite and he should not be taken very seriously.”

Majed Mokheiber, Damascus, Syria: “This is why we cannot predict whether there will be stability or more military security. In addition to that, we see that there are military tension spots around the world in other areas such as North Korea … that frankly may lead to a big explosion and a world war.”

Juan Pablo Bolanos, Mexico City: “I think it’s a bit of both. On the issue of sending Mexicans back, it is being fulfilled by the guy, Trump, and on the issue of building the wall, I definitely think he will not achieve it.”

Has Trump changed your views about America?

Ra So Yon, Pyongyang, North Korea: “After Trump became president, there has been no improvement in America’s image. If America doesn’t stop its aggression against us and pressure on us, then we’ll never have any good image of America; it will only get worse. We’ll never be surprised, whatever America does. And we’re not expecting any surprises from Trump.”

Yuri (no last name given), Moscow: “Nothing actually had changed, for real. Nothing had changed in Russian-American relations. They aren’t our friends or enemies. Geopolitical enemies, maybe, that’s it.”

Margret Machner, Berlin: “My trust at the moment is a lot less than it was earlier. One had the feeling that America was a strong, safe partner and I do not believe this anymore.”

Dan Mirkin, Tel Aviv: “I think that the U.S. remains the beacon of democracy because the U.S. itself is much more than its president. The president can be less or more of a beacon. But, America is a beacon.”

Hamza Abu Maria, Hebron, West Bank: “I’m about 30 years old, and since I grew up and started to understand and follow news, I don’t think the United States up until today was a beacon of democracy. If it was truly democratic, then from a long time ago they would have done justice to the Palestinian people.”

Mohammad Ali, Damascus: “We should never bet on any American administration, either Republican or Democrat. It’s the same front, supposedly to fight terrorism, but they didn’t do any of that. Instead they carried out an aggression against a sovereign state, which is Syria. They attacked Syria and they attacked the air base of a sovereign state and a member of the Arab League.”

Deqo Salaad, Mogadishu: “The U.S. was once both the beacon of democracy and human rights, but nowadays, a big change has happened as we can see more segregation committed by President Trump, especially when he said he was going to ban Muslims coming to the U.S. And with that, he has damaged the reputation of the U.S. of being the beacon of democracy and human rights in this world that the U.S. government promoted for ages now.”

Are we now living in a “post-truth” world?

Diane Lallouz, Tel Aviv: “I don’t think that we’re existing in a post-truth world and I don’t think that the way we consume information has anything to do with Trump. Actually over the last several decades we are getting information more and more on social media, so people are getting small amounts of information. Not too much real knowledge and that’s part of the problem. People are making judgments based on tiny amounts of truth or half-truth or non-truths, and it’s impossible to know, by the social media, what is really true. Is Trump the cause of this? I don’t think so. I think Trump is just a part of the picture that we live in today.”

Dan Mirkin, Tel Aviv: “I don’t think it affects the way that I consume information but it certainly changes the way in which the information is delivered, and the fact of alternative truth, alternative facts is a new invention, so we have to apply filters more than before.”

Mahmoud Draghmeh, Nablus, West Bank: “The world is far from the truth, despite the fact the technological development helped the news to reach. But I think that there is a distance from the truth, because the media, with all my respect to the different media outlets, everyone adopts his idea and exports it to the world.”

What has surprised you about President Trump?

Ute Hubner, Berlin: “I find he is very honest – more honest than I thought in the sense that a lot isn’t pushed under the table. He says it like it is, while here in our case so much is said and talked about that “everything is fine, wonderful and all is good,” while we know that the reality is more often than not something else.”

Fatmeh (full name not given) Damascus: “Trump increased problems in the Arab world and the first proof is the strike on Syria. This has increased problems and confusion. He didn’t do anything against terrorism; he only increased it. There is nothing new. His policy has been to oppress people, especially the Arab people. We didn’t see anything new.”

Yadollah Sobhani, Tehran: “What shocked me most from Trump was a sudden shift in his policies toward Russia from a friendly position to a clash. I did not expect such instability in a politician’s behavior.”

Payam Mosleh, Tehran: “What scared me most was the classification of human beings (under Trump’s proposed Muslim ban). I think history has taught and shown us enough times that separating people from each other has never done anyone any good. Building walls either in Berlin or America has no results and is disastrous.”

Mahdieh Gharib, Tehran: “What surprised me most was preventing Iranians from entering the United States or even barring those Iranians who were U.S. residents and had temporarily left that country. Bombing Syria was the second thing that surprised me.”

Shimon Abitbol, Tel Aviv: “He’s playing too much golf. That’s the only thing I’m surprised by. I mean, how can he have so much time to play so much golf?
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A man filmed himself killing his 11-month-old daughter on Facebook live before committing suicide, Thai police said Tuesday. The social media giant called the incident “appalling.”

Authorities said the slaying occurred in the seaside town of Phuket, where the father, 21, hung his daughter. People could access the videos of the child’s death for roughly 24 hours, until they were taken down about 5 p.m. in Bangkok (1000 GMT) on Tuesday, or about a day after they had been uploaded.

“This is an appalling incident and our hearts go out to the family of the victim,” a Facebook spokesperson said in an email to VOA. “There is absolutely no place for acts of this kind on Facebook and the footage has now been removed.”

Murders, suicides and sexual assault have plagued Facebook, though they make up only a small percentage of videos.

On Tuesday, a Swedish court jailed three men for the rape of a woman that was broadcast live on Facebook. And earlier this month, a man in the U.S. posted video on Facebook of himself killing a 74-year-old man in Cleveland, Ohio. The man accused of posting the video, Steve Stephens, shot himself after a police chase in Pennsylvania. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said afterward that the company would do all it could to “prevent tragedies like this from happening again.”

Shocking footage

The harrowing footage from Thailand showed Wuttisan Wongtalay tying a rope to his daughter Natalie’s neck before dropping the child, dressed in a bright pink dress, from the rooftop of a deserted building in Phuket.

Wuttisan’s suicide was not broadcast, but his lifeless body was found beside his that of his daughter, said Jullaus Suvannin, the police officer in charge of the case.

“He was having paranoia about his wife leaving him and not loving him,” Jullaus said.

Wuttisan’s wife, Jiranuch Triratana, said she had lived with him for over a year. At first the relationship had gone well, she said, but then he grew violent and sometimes hit her 5-year-old son from a previous husband.

She feared that something was wrong on Tuesday when she found he had left home with Natalie.

Somsak Khaosuwan, a spokesman for Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy, said it contacted Facebook on Tuesday afternoon about removing the videos, after receiving a police request.

Khaosuwan said the government would take no action against the company: “We will not be able to press charges against Facebook, because Facebook is the service provider and they acted according to their protocol when we sent our request. They cooperated very well.”

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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North Korea conducted a big live-fire exercise on Tuesday to mark the foundation of its military, media reported, as a U.S. submarine docked in South Korea in a show of force amid growing concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

The port call by the USS Michigan came as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steamed towards Korean waters and as the top envoys for North Korea policy from South Korea, Japan, and the United States met in Tokyo.

Fears have risen in recent weeks that North Korea could conduct another nuclear test or long-range missile launch in defiance of U.N. sanctions, perhaps on the Tuesday anniversary of the founding of its military.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the North appeared to have deployed a large number of long-range artillery units in the region of Wonsan on its east coast on Tuesday, for a live-fire drill.

The report, citing an unidentified South Korean government source, said the exercise was possibly supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.

“Our military is closely monitoring the North Korean military’s movement in Wonsan areas and we are firmly maintaining readiness,” South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

North Korea’s state media was defiant in a commentary marking the 85th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army, saying its military was prepared “to bring to closure the history of U.S. scheming and nuclear blackmail”.

“There is no limit to the strike power of the People’s Army armed with our style of cutting-edge military equipment including various precision and miniaturized nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles,” the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a front-page editorial.

North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile and has said all options are on the table, including a military strike.

He sent the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group for exercises in waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning to North Korea and a show of solidarity with U.S. allies.

South Korea’s navy said it was conducting a live-fire exercise with U.S. destroyers on Tuesday in waters west of the Korean peninsula and would soon join the carrier strike group approaching the region.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshide Suga told media that China’s nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, would hold talks with Japanese Foreign Ministry officials on Tuesday. A ministry source said Wu was likely to meet his Japanese nuclear counterpart on Wednesday.

Japan’s envoy on North Korea, Kenji Kanasugi, said after talks with his U.S. and South Korean counterparts that they all agreed China should take a concrete role to resolve the crisis and it could use an oil embargo as a tool to press the North.

“We believe China has a very, very important role to play,” said the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun.

Rare senate briefing

Matching the flurry of diplomatic and military activity in Asia, the State Department in Washington said on Monday U.S.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would chair a special ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea on Friday.

Tillerson, along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Joint Chiefs chairman General Joseph Dunford, would also hold a rare briefing for the entire U.S. Senate on North Korea on Wednesday, Senate aides said.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said those meetings called by U.S. officials clearly reflected the U.S.

pressure that could “ignite a full-out war” on the Korean peninsula.

“The reality of today again proves the decision to strengthen nuclear power in quality and quantity under the banner of pursuing economic development and nuclear power was the correct one,” the unidentified spokesman said in a statement issued by the North’s state media.

On Monday, Trump called for tougher U.N. sanctions on the North, saying it was a global threat and “a problem that we have to finally solve”.

“The status quo in North Korea is also unacceptable,” Trump told a meeting with the 15 U.N. Security Council ambassadors, including China and Russia, at the White House. “The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”

The official China Daily said on Tuesday it was time for Pyongyang and Washington to take a step back from harsh rhetoric and heed voices of reason calling for a peaceful resolution.

“Judging from their recent words and deeds, policymakers in Pyongyang have seriously misread the U.N. sanctions, which are aimed at its nuclear/missile provocations, not its system or leadership,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

“They are at once perilously overestimating their own strength and underestimating the hazards they are brewing for themselves,” it said.

In a phone conversation with Trump on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint.

As the carrier group drills continued, the USS Michigan arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday, the U.S.

Navy said. The nuclear-powered submarine is built to carry and launch ballistic missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

As well as his military show of force, Trump has sought to press China to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbor.

China, North Korea’s sole major ally, has in turn been angered by Pyongyang’s belligerence, as well as its nuclear and missile programs.
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A Pakistani local government official says a roadside bombing has hit a minivan in the country’s northwestern tribal region, killing nine people. 

Arif Khan, a tribal administration official in the town of Parachinar, says the blast ripped through the van as it was travelling through a minority Shiite region of the Kurram tribal area, which borders Afghanistan.

The area has long been the scene of sectarian violence.

The official says a woman and two children were among the nine killed. He says the explosion also wounded 13 people.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistani Taliban and other Sunni militant groups often target minority Shiites whom they consider to be heretics. Pakistan has been fighting Islamic militants for over a decade.
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U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan on Monday called on both the American and Chinese governments to exercise “true reciprocity” in relations, including trade and diplomacy. 

The Republican senator from Alaska, in a speech concerning Chinese outbound investment, and in an interview with VOA afterward, said China has been aggressively buying companies in key sectors such as robotics, biotech, advanced machineries, software, entertainment and media “throughout America and Western Europe. But if you’re an American firm, or a firm from Germany, and you want to go to China and buy Chinese companies in those same sectors, you would be told ‘no;’ you would be prohibited.”

Making “true reciprocity” US policy

Sullivan’s proposed “true reciprocity” is rather simple and straightforward: “If Chinese companies want to invest in America’s biotech sector, then American companies should be able to invest in China’s biotech sector. It’s simple, it’s fair, it’s what China has said it wants to do but it doesn’t do, and we need to be much more serious about implementing it.”

Should China continue to ignore Washington’s calls for equal treatment and a level playing field, Sullivan says he is prepared to introduce legislation aiming at closing what he identifies as China’s “credibility gap,” and making sure that “true reciprocity” becomes official U.S. policy.

The Alaska Republican, who serves on both the Senate’s Commerce and Armed Services Committees, called on the U.S. government to reject “Middle Kingdom diplomatic practices” that fail to grant U.S. diplomats the same level of access Chinese diplomats receive in Washington. 

“Middle kingdom” diplomatic practices

Quoting from a study done by the New York-based Asia Society, Sullivan said “for a number of years, the U.S. ambassador in Beijing was only getting deputy minister level access while we, of course, give higher access to Chinese ambassadors here in Washington.”He called the solution to such unequal diplomatic treatments “a no brainer.” 

“If our ambassador in Beijing only gets deputy minister level access, then that’s what we should provide China’s ambassador in Washington, period. Middle Kingdom diplomatic practices should be firmly and aggressively rejected by the U.S. government everywhere,” Sullivan said.

He agreed that his proposed “true reciprocity” ought to also include issues such as granting journalists visas and access in both countries.

Growing domestic consensus

Sullivan said “there’s growing domestic consensus” in the United States that America’s strategic interests, including strategic economic interests, outweigh the market price of individual transactions, while acknowledging that each individual American businessman or woman naturally want the highest return for their individual product.

“The broader strategic interest of having a strong U.S. economy, and signaling to the next biggest economy in the world, China, that you need to play by the rules we play by, is also very important; and in my view, that importance strategically overrides the interest of the ability of American firms to sell to Chinese investment funds.”

Senator Dan Sullivan: China needs to play by rules we play by

Geo-economics

Daniel Twining, counselor and director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an associate of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, thinks the U.S. economic power so far has not been sufficiently utilized to advance the nation’s overall strategic, political and economic interests. 

“The U.S. is used to this traditional foreign policy tool kit that involves the armed forces, the diplomatic corps and development (foreign aid), but there’s really a fourth link here, which is our economic statecraft,” he told VOA.

Twining said other major powers, including China, appear to be much more adept at what he called “geo-economics,” using trade and investment “quite actively” and “quite smartly” to advance overall national interests.“It may be smart for us to think more about our economic strategies in the world,” including acknowledging and adopting strategies accordingly based on the fact that “market forces are not working everywhere, including in an economy like China that is still somewhat closed or controlled in some respects.”

Daniel Twining: Market forces are not working everywhere

​

Forgoing short-term profit

A newly released report by Baker McKenzie put Chinese worldwide outbound investment at $200 billion in 2016, nearly half of which targeted assets in North America and Europe. 

According to Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon and former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, the primary goal of China’s overseas investments does not lie in short-term profit but rather in gaining strategic advantage, and that means not necessarily in gaining immediate economic return.

Robert Shapiro: China playing the long game

​
…

About 5,000 American and Philippine troops will hold humanitarian exercises next month instead of annual war games, scaling back military drills in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s disdain for their longstanding defense alliance.

Troops taking part in “Balikatan” will simulate a response to a devastating super typhoon in the central Philippines, modeled on typhoon Haiyan in 2013, which killed at least 6,300 people and left more than 200,000 families homeless.

“Balikatan is designed to meet current challenges facing the Philippines,” U.S. embassy press officer Molly Koscina said in a statement on Monday.

Duterte has made no secret of his grudge against the United States and believes a U.S. military presence of any kind in the Philippines puts his country at risk of being dragged into conflict. He has threatened to abrogate treaties with Washington, but has yet to follow up.

Duterte contacts Russia, China

The volatile leader has reached out to Russia and China and invited their warships to come to the Philippines for exercises too.

He has taken issue with the United States on its approach to the South China Sea and said Manila will never take part in joint patrols, to avoid provoking China.

Balikatan, which means “shoulder-to-shoulder,” has taken place on 32 occasions and every year since 2000, involving conventional warfare activities, as part of a mutual defense treaty between the two countries under a 1951 security pact.

Amphibious landing part of last’s years drills

Nearly 9,000 troops participated in a simulation of retaking an oil-and-gas platform last year, seized by an imaginary enemy, and practiced an amphibious landing on a Philippine beach near an area of the disputed South China Sea.

U.S. Marines also used for the first time in the Philippines a long-range truck-mounted multiple rocket launcher.

A Philippine army spokesman said the downsizing of the exercises was in response to Duterte’s dislike of war games with Washington.

“We made some adjustments, based on the pronouncements of the president that such exercises should be focused on humanitarian operations,” Major Frank Sayson told reporters. “Just to make it clear, this is not a war game.”

Two major military drills called off

Sayson said the two sides agreed to scrap two major military drills — Amphibious Landing Exercise or “Phiblex” and Cooperation Afloat and Readiness Training (CARAT) — geared toward external and maritime defense.

He said the two armies would work on marksmanship and defusing of homemade bombs, as part of counter-terrorism exercises.
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