China ready to ‘smash’ Taiwan self-rule as US arms package readied
BEIJING — China is prepared to “resolutely smash any form of Taiwan independence,” its military said Tuesday, as the U.S. reportedly prepares to accelerate the sale of defensive weapons and other military assistance to the self-governing island democracy.
A recent increase in exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwanese militaries is an “extremely wrong and dangerous move,” Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Tan Kefei said in a statement and video posted online.
China’s People’s Liberation Army “continues to strengthen military training and preparations and will resolutely smash any form of Taiwanese independence secession along with attempts at outside interference, and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Tan said, in a reference to Taiwan’s closest ally, the United States.
China claims the island of 23 million people as its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary.
With the world’s largest navy, latest-generation fighter jets and a huge arsenal of ballistic missiles, China has been upping its threats by sending planes and warships into waters and airspace around Taiwan. With more than 2 million members, the PLA also ranks as the world’s largest standing military, although transporting even a portion of the force in the event of an invasion is considered a huge logistical challenge.
Along with daily air and sea incursions around Taiwan, Beijing has held military exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait dividing the sides, seen in part as a rehearsal for a blockade or invasion that would have massive consequences for security and economies worldwide.
Such actions seek to harass Taiwan’s military and intimidate politicians and voters who will choose a new president and legislature next year.
The moves appear to have had limited effect, with most Taiwanese firmly in favor of maintaining their de facto independent status. Politicians and other public figures from Europe and the U.S. have also been making frequent trips to Taipei to show their support, despite their countries’ lack of formal diplomatic ties in deference to Beijing.
Biden vetoes solar tariffs:
President Joe Biden on Tuesday vetoed a congressional resolution that would have reinstated tariffs on solar panel imports from Southeast Asia, settling for now a long-running dispute over whether to punish China for trade violations that bypass U.S. rules limiting imports of cheap solar panels from Asia.
The result of Biden’s veto is that a two-year delay on tariffs will continue until at least June 2024.
Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about what they call unfair competition from China, which has long dominated the global market for manufacturing solar panels. Some U.S. manufacturers contend that China has essentially moved operations to four Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia — to skirt U.S. anti-dumping rules.
Bolsonaro questioned:
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro was questioned Tuesday by Federal Police in an investigation into allegations that COVID19 vaccine cards were falsified to get around U.S. vaccine requirements.
Police haven’t publicly named the targets of their investigation, but local media reports have said authorities are looking into the vaccine cards of Bolsonaro, his advisers and members of his family and whether they were altered ahead of U.S. visits.
Floods hit northern Italy:
Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, forcing some residents to rooftops, while in Venice, authorities prepared to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from a rare May high-tide flooding.
After the Savio River overflowed its banks in the town of Cesena, in the heart of the Emilia-romagna region, some residents of heavily flooded streets took to rooftops to await rescue by helicopters, Italian firefighters said.
The nearly 100,000 residents of the town were told to avoid the temptation to view the raging waters and not to stay on ground floors if they lived near the river.
“Use prudence, don’t be curious, so disaster doesn’t turn into tragedy,’’ Mayor Enzo Lattuca urged in remarks on Rai state TV.
In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.
In Venice, the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted Tuesday night for the first time ever in May. It is nearly 20 years to the day when construction on the project, which is still not officially completed, began.
Actor’s rape trial: Danny Masterson drugged women’s drinks so he could rape them, then relied on his prominence in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for years, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in closing arguments at the actor’s trial.
“The defendant drugs his victims to gain control. He does this to take away his victims’ ability to consent,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury. “You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice. The defendant makes that choice for these victims.”
The former star of “That ’70s Show,” 47, is on trial for rape for a second time after the first ended in a mistrial in December, with a jury deadlocked on all counts.
Masterson has pleaded not guilty to raping three women at his home between 2001 and 2003. His attorney, Philip Cohen, told jurors that inconsistencies in the women’s stories that he said Anson downplayed are important to consider.
Anson took aim at the Church of Scientology, of which all three women are former members, emphasizing that church authorities kept the women from reporting Masterson to police for years.
Jewelry heist convictions: A German court convicted five men Tuesday of breaking into a Dresden museum and stealing 21 pieces of jewelry containing more than 4,300 diamonds.
The men, ranging in age from 24 to 29, received prison sentences ranging from four years and four months to six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.
The Dresden state court ruled that the five were responsible for the theft of the 18th-century jewelry from the Green Vault Museum on Nov. 25, 2019. Officials said at the time that the stolen items included a large diamond brooch.
The crime was considered one of Germany’s most spectacular jewelry heists in recent history. The pieces taken had a total insured value of at least $129 million.