Faced with intensifying Chinese encroachment at sea, the Philippines increasingly sees its national security as intertwined with that of Taiwan and is quietly ramping up both formal and informal engagement with the self-governing island. washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/…

Huawei becomes China’s top smartphone seller for the first time in 4 years Yes, these also use advanced node semiconductors made in China... sc.mp/6vmqu?utm_sour… via @scmpnews

Update on PLA Activities Around Taiwan (Based on 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, ROC(Taiwan) 🇹🇼's Data) Three Observations: (1) As of July 15, the cumulative number of PLA aircraft sorties crossing the median line during the first half of July 2025 is significantly lower than during the same period in 2024.

Today is publication day for Ghost Nation. Massive thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. It's great seeing photos of the book in the wild - here's one in the UK's Peak District.

Japan’s Liberal Democratic party, the political bloc that has governed the country almost exclusively for 70 years, has lost its majority in both houses of parliament for the first time. ft.com/content/02139f…

Value of Chinese companies’ new investment and construction contracts in countries that are part of President Xi Jinping’s global Belt and Road Initiative has hit a record high this year ft.com/content/a2635b…

Kazushi Minami, "Unity and Struggle: The Twilight of Maoism in the United States" cambridge.org/core/journals/…

The Taiwan papers: academics suggest how mainland China might rule the island scmp.com/news/china/pol…

郑坤, “三峡晨曦,” 2015 everydaylifeinmaoistchina.org/2025/07/18/%e9…

For Foreign Affairs, Wei-Ting Yen and I write about how polarization in Taiwan has reached dangerous levels. Partisan politics needs an off-ramp, both for the sake of Taiwan’s national security, and its ability to function as a democracy. foreignaffairs.com/taiwan/taiwans…

Central News Agency (中央社) Focus Taiwan (CNA English News) Coverage of RCDA Special Report: Observations on Taiwan’s Military Force Adjustments in 2025 民間學會發表漢光觀察報告：視灰色襲擾為戰前態勢 cna.com.tw/news/aipl/2025…

wsj.com/world/asia/as-…

Xie Fuzhi and Wang Li are welcomed back to Beijing after the July 20 Incident in 1967 everydaylifeinmaoistchina.org/2025/07/30/xie…

Australia selects Japan’s Mogami frigate in $6.5B deal. The deal, for 11 frigates, represents the first major arms sale for Japan since World War II. breakingdefense.com/2025/08/austra…

the US would offer financing for countries to acquire and deploy a “full stack” of American technologies ranging from chips and data centres to large language models and cloud services “packaged for each customer nation’s convenience”. ft.com/content/2add9a…

China is as full of political junkies as the United States Naturally some of the best analysis of Chinese politics is in Chinese—and here on X! Happy to publish this 水在瓶 guide to 10 must-follow X accounts for "China Watching in Chinese" 🗂️Alphabetical order🧵

“I thought I’d go back to my usual life after the [recall] vote,” says Chen. “But now we have to keep going. If we don’t stop them, we will lose our sovereignty and our freedom forever.” ft.com/content/9c2115…

"Chris Horton's 'Ghost Nation' Examines Taiwan's Neglected History" by Brian Hioe 丘琦欣 nomanisanis.land/ghost-nation-r…

This is an incredibly important paper, just published in China Economic Review. It finds that China’s low-carbon technology exports *significantly* reduce partner countries’ CO2 emissions. China’s clean energy push is clearly helping the world decarbonise.

Chinese mega dam stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns Shift from Siemens and Schneider reflects concerns over industrial control system vulnerabilities, including computer worms like Stuxnet sc.mp/cg4m4?utm_sour… via @scmpnews