“The reason [Donald Trump] is able to take on China directly now is because our economy is so good based on all of the policies that he has enacted,” said Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
After yet another rally this weekend condemning Japan for its escalating trade dispute with South Korea, residents of the Seoul neighborhood that serves as home to the nation’s presidential office are organizing an event to protest the “endless protests” they have endured since 2016.
Thursday was the 74th annual Liberation Day in South Korea, commemorating the end of Japanese occupation after World War Two, featured demonstrations denouncing both Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has not visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine since 2013, but he paid for a ritual offering on Thursday, which was enough to ruffle feathers across Asia. The shrine is seen in Japan as a memorial to peace, and by many other Asian nations as a nostalgic celebration of Japan’s militaristic era.
Thousands filled the streets of Seoul on Saturday night, carrying candles and signs of protest against Japan’s tighter trade restrictions on South Korea. More marches and rallies are planned every weekend as Liberation Day, the holiday commemorating the end of Japanese occupation in 1945, approaches on August 15.
Japan fired the latest salvo in its rapidly-escalating feud with South Korea on Friday by approving a proposal to remove South Korea from its list of trusted trading partners.
Thousands of South Koreans rallied in Seoul on Saturday night, carrying banners that read “No Abe!” and “Apologize for forced labor!”
A nasty diplomatic dispute between South Korea and Japan grew even more intense on Thursday as a South Korean lawmaker accused the Japanese of shipping banned materials to North Korea on 30 different occasions over the past 20 years, in some cases shipping items that were useful in the production of nuclear weapons.
Japan’s largest warship, the Izumo, completed joint drills with allies including the U.S., France, and Australia this week, demonstrating Japan’s improved ability to project power across the region – pointedly including ground actions on islands like the ones China has been militarizing. China just used those islands to conduct missile tests that a growing list of Asian powers found disturbing, as did the United States.
Despite China’s demands that Hong Kong not be discussed in any way at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo confronted Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping on Thursday over China’s human rights abuses and told him “a free and open Hong Kong” must be allowed to “prosper under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ policy.”
Pompeo announced Thursday that the U.S. has assessed Iran is responsible for attacks on two oil tankers that morning in the Gulf of Oman.
The Japanese government formally announced on Tuesday that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will depart for Tehran on Wednesday to meet with President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he believes Iran “would like to make a deal” on nuclear disarmament, while Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi became the latest senior Iranian official to rule out the possibility of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
