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The actions of Donald Trump are fanning growing uncertainty in Taiwan regarding the reliability of American support.Before the April 2 announcement, the Lai administration believed that Taiwanese exports to the US would face tariffs of 10 per cent at most. The 32 per cent levy instead blindsided Taipei and sent shock waves through key sectors such as hi-tech manufacturing, which depend heavily on stable trade ties with the US.The tariffs stunned policymakers who believed Taiwan had already made significant “protection payments” to the United States, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) US$100 billion investment in chip plants in Arizona, and…

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a bilateral lunch with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in the Cabinet Room at the White House on April 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. The leaders are expected to discuss security, trade, NATO and the war in Ukraine. Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesAmericans are delivering a negative verdict on President Donald Trump’s performance as he nears the 100-day mark of his second term, according to a new NBC News Stay Tuned Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey. That includes a sharp divide on his handling of immigration, long his strongest issue in polls, and deep disapproval of…

Chinese state media has accused US President Donald Trump of falsely attributing ocean pollution to China by sharing misleading images on social media, reflecting dim prospects for an improvement in ties between the two countries.The Paper, a digital newspaper run by state-owned Shanghai United Media Group, said on the weekend that three photos posted by Trump online were either digitally altered or outdated – and none were taken in China.The report, headlined “Fact Check: Trump Blames China for Pacific Ocean Pollution Using Doctored Images”, was shared on Chinese social media, including by state-owned People’s Daily, Global Times and Beijing Daily.In…

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi assured foreign investors that Pakistan was a safe country to invest in and that the government would “fulfil [its] responsibility of protecting them at all costs”, a press release from the ministry said on Sunday. While Pakistan has made efforts to exploit its natural resources and has invited foreign investment in different projects, the security situation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa often poses challenges, with foreign nationals being attacked over the past couple of years. According to the press release, the interior minister met with a delegation of foreign investors in Lahore and discussed steps to…

“Our calculations show that low Earth orbit could get overcrowded with about 100,000 satellites,” Meng Lingjie, director of the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Earth observation and data centre, told the news portal Jiemian.com last week.“To keep space sustainable, the CNSA is working on a traffic management system to better organise satellite placement and operations. Without it, overlapping projects and repetitive competition could seriously hurt the industry’s development.”Industry data shows that China has 58 satellite factories either operating, under construction, or in the planning stages.Based on publicly available capacity estimates, the country’s satellite production is expected to exceed 5,000 units…

They came to America as refugees, after losing everything in a CIA-led “secret war” that ended in catastrophe. Now, decades later, members of the Laotian diaspora are facing another fight – this time against deportation.Across the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have carried out a wave of detentions targeting communities who trace their roots back to Laos. For many, a knock at the door now carries a chilling undertone.“ICE’s tactics have become more aggressive, unethical and inhumane,” Chanida Phaengdara Potter, founder of advocacy group the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project, told This Week in Asia.“People are being detained…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.President Donald Trump’s global trade war is expected to weigh heavily on April’s US jobs report, with hiring forecast to be sharply lower for the month.Friday’s data is expected to show that hiring slowed significantly this month, according to a survey of economists by Bloomberg. The US is forecast to have added just 125,000 jobs in April, a significant drop from the 228,000 added in the previous month.April’s data will capture cuts to the public labour force exacted by Elon Musk’s so-called…

WASHINGTON: Global finance leaders came to Washington this past week seeking clarity on what it would take to get some relief from President Donald Trump’s multi-layered tariff assault and on just how much pain it will bring to the world economy. Most headed home with more questions than answers. Many participants in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings had a sense that Trump’s administration was still conflicted in its demands from trading partners hit with his sweeping tariffs. During the whirlwind week, many finance and trade ministers sought to meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and…

Beijing has further tightened its management of rural government workers with revised anti-corruption supervision rules for grass-roots officials.The changes mean that after more than a decade of anti-corruption campaigns, China’s system for supervising rural officials has finally been defined, according to one scholar.The revised Regulations on the Honest Performance of Duties by Rural Grass-roots Officials came into force on March 28, state news agency Xinhua reported last week.The document was jointly issued by the Central Office of the Communist Party and the General Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet, and is the first revision of the rules since they…

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Taipei on the weekend as part of an opposition rally against Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te.The Kuomintang (KMT) organisers of the rally claimed that more than 200,000 supporters attended the event. Citing an unidentified police source, Taiwan news site UDN.com said that at least 60,000 people attended the rally.Protesters gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building on Saturday, holding Republic of China flags and banners denouncing Lai’s rule.Addressing the crowd, KMT chairman Eric Chu Li-luan accused Lai of being a “dictator” who was trying to “eliminate…