Taiwan

China said Sunday it would resume some ties it had suspended with Taiwan, such as direct flights to cities across China and imports of Taiwanese aquaculture products, as the island's opposition party leader concludes her visit. The Taiwan Work Office under China's Communist Party issued a statement saying it would explore setting up a longstanding communication mechanism between the Communist Party and Taiwan's Kuomingtang Party, and facilitate the import of Taiwan's aquaculture products, after it banned them in recent years. Cheng Li-wun, the head of the Kuomingtang, and China's President Xi Jinping held a high-profile meeting Friday during which both called for peace without offering specifics. Taiwan is self-ruled, but China claims the island as part of its territory. Relations between China and Taiwan have been tense since 2016, when the Taiwanese public elected Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party as president. Since then, Beijing cut off most of its official ...

Meeting in the Great Hall of the People, Xi told Cheng that today's world was not entirely at peace, and peace was precious

Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun arrived in China on Tuesday at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, in what she's calling a "journey for peace" as Beijing pushes for the self-ruled island to come under its control. The visit is the first by a Taiwanese opposition leader in a decade and comes ahead of a meeting in Beijing between Xi and US President Donald Trump scheduled to take place in May. Meanwhile, Taiwan's opposition-controlled parliament has stalled attempts by its government to pass a USD 40 billion special defence budget, expected to fund arms deals with the United States and the development of Taiwan's indigenous defence industry. China claims the self-ruled island as its own territory and has not excluded the use of force to take it. Beijing has been ramping up its military pressure against the island by sending warplanes and naval vessels near it almost daily, while its military occasionally stages live-fire drills around the island, the latest in December. Th

Taiwan, which faces a rising military threat from China, has complained of repeated delays to weapons ordered from the US, the most important international backer and arms supplier for the island

Taiwan saw a surge of Chinese military planes near the island, its defence ministry said on Sunday, after a sharp drop in flights over the past two weeks had sparked discussions among observers. The ministry detected 26 Chinese military aircraft around the island on Saturday, with 16 of them entering its central and southwestern Air Defence Identification Zone. Seven naval ships were spotted around the island, it reported. The increased number of aircraft came after the ministry reported a fall that left analysts scratching their heads about what China's military may be up to. Taiwan didn't report any Chinese military planes that went beyond the median line and entered the zone for a week from Feb. 27 to March 5. After two were detected on March 6, the next four days had none. Such flights resumed in small numbers between Wednesday and Friday. The drop coincided with the annual meeting of China's legislature. While such flights have fallen in the past during major events and public

Countries across Asia are imposing fuel curbs, remote work and price caps as oil supply disruptions from the West Asia conflict trigger price volatility and threaten energy security

The US's military support for Taiwan has become one of the key points of contention between Washington and Beijing before the countries' leaders are slated to meet in April in China

The Trump administration has reached a trade deal with Taiwan, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99 per cent of its tariff barriers, the office of the US Trade Representative said. The agreement comes as the US remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly USD 127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau. Taiwan's exports to the US will be taxed at a 15 per cent rate or the US government's "Most Favoured Nation" rate, the USTR's office said on Thursday. The 15 per cent rate is the same as that levied on other US trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan's Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and

In Taipei, real estate agent Jason Sung is betting that home prices around a high-tech industrial park in the northern part of Taiwan's capital will soon take flight because of computer chip maker Nvidia. The area is where Nvidia plans to build its new Taiwan headquarters as it rapidly expands on the island, set to surpass Apple to become the biggest customer of Taiwan semiconductor maker TSMC, the biggest contract manufacturer of the advanced chips needed for artificial intelligence. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang describes Taiwan as the "center of the world's computer ecosystem." It's riding high on the global AI frenzy. Its economy grew at an 8.6% annual pace last year, and it's hoping to maintain that momentum after it recently sealed a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that cut U.S. tariffs on Taiwan to 15% from 20%. "We have been lucky," said Wu Tsong-min, an emeritus economics professor at National Taiwan University and a former board member of Taiwan's central bank. But

Taiwan's ties with the United States are "rock solid," the island's president said Thursday, hours after President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone about topics that included the self-ruled island's future. "The Taiwan-US relationship is rock solid, and all cooperation projects will continue uninterrupted," Taiwan President Lai Ching-te told reporters during a visit to textile merchants in western Taiwan. The comments came after Xi, in his first call with Trump since November, warned the US president to be "prudent" about supplying arms to the self-ruled island, according to a readout of their call provided by China's Foreign Ministry. Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with - including the US - from having formal ties with Taipei. Still, while the US doesn't officially recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the island's .

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the situation in Iran in a wide-ranging call that comes as the US administration pushes Beijing and others to isolate Tehran. Trump said the two leaders also discussed a broad range of other critical issues in the US-China relationship, including trade and Taiwan and his plans to visit Beijing in April. Trump, who continues to weigh taking military action against Iran, announced last month in a social media post he would impose a 25 per cent tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. Years of sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program have left the country isolated. But Tehran still did nearly USD 125 billion in international trade in 2024, including USD 32 billion with China, USD 28 billion with the United Arab Emirates and USD 17 billion with Turkey, according to the World Trade Organization.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said they have monitored the situation and responded

China made a major announcement over the weekend, saying it was investigating the army's top general for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. No details have been revealed, but the action is a highly radical move: The general was the highest military member just below President Xi Jinping. The Defence Ministry said on Saturday that authorities were investigating two generals: Gen. Zhang Youxia, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, China's top military body, and Gen. Liu Zhenli, a lower member of the commission who was in charge of the military's Joint Staff Department. The move shakes up virtually the entire commission, chaired by Xi, leaving only one of its six members intact. "Xi Jinping has completed one of the biggest purges of China's military leadership in the history of the People's Republic," said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute's Centre for China Analysis. For the army and China in general,

American rock climber Alex Honnold climbed the Taipei 101 skyscraper on Sunday without any ropes or protective equipment. Cheers erupted from a gathered crowd as he started climbing the 508-metre (1,667-foot) tower earlier Sunday, using the horizontal metal beams to pull himself up with his bare hands. The onlookers cheered again when he paused at one point and turned around to face them, in a red short-sleeve shirt that stood out as he made the climb. Honnold's free solo climb of the iconic building in Taiwan's capital city was being broadcast live on Netflix with a 10-second delay. The ascent, originally scheduled for Saturday, was delayed for 24 hours due to rain. The climb drew both excitement and concern over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavour on live broadcast. Honnold, known for his ropeless ascent up Yosemite National Park's El Capitan, climbed up one corner of Taipei 101 using small L-shaped outcroppings as footholds. Periodically, he had to

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said nine of the sorties crossed the median line into Taiwan's northern and southwestern air defence identification zone (ADIZ)

The slide comes as tensions simmer between Japan and China following Takaichi's November assertion that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could form a legal justification for Japan to deploy troops

The United States and Taiwan reached a trade deal on Thursday that cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods in exchange for USD 250 billion in new investments in the US tech industry. The deal is the latest President Donald Trump has struck such as those with the European Union and Japan since he unveiled a sweeping tariff plan last April to address trade imbalances. Trump also has a one-year trade truce with China to stabilise ties with the world's second largest economy. Trump initially set the tariff at 32 per cent on Taiwanese goods but later changed it to 20 per cent. The new agreement slashes the tariff rate to 15 per cent, the same as levied on other US trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan and South Korea. In a statement, the US Department of Commerce said the deal with Taiwan would establish an economic partnership to create several world-class US-based industrial parks in order to help build up domestic production. The department described it as "a historic ..

Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's largest computer chip maker, plans to increase its capital spending by about 40% this year after it reported a 35% jump in its net profit for the latest quarter thanks to the boom in artificial intelligence, the company said Thursday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a major supplier to companies including Nvidia and Apple, reported a net profit of 506 billion new Taiwan dollars ($16 billion) for the October-December quarter, a 35% surge from a year earlier, better than analysts' estimates. TSMC said Thursday that its revenue in the last quarter increased 21% from a year earlier to more than 1.046 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($33 billion). TSMC said it plans to boost its capital expenditure budget to $52 billion-$56 billion for 2026, up from about $40 billion last year. The company's shares have climbed more than 8% since the beginning of the year, reflecting its strong position in the AI-driven market. Other tech giants including Microsoft,

Efforts to prevent the poaching of Taiwan's talent and outflow of intellectual property appear to have intensified since President Lai Ching-te took office in 2024