This is a linchpin week. Britain’s new aircraft carrier stands by with courses ready for the South Sea. America has an inauguration scheduled amid more foreseeable chaos, likely greater than Hong Kong. Bad news on China only gets worse—while the Huawei CFO pleas for a life less difficult than her millions of dollars can buy her, she is contrasted to China’s treatment of two arrested Canadians. That doesn’t make China look charitable in the eyes of the five countries that declared the Hong Kong treaty broken late last year.
Diplomats from Taiwan and the US had a diplomat-to-diplomat talk in Switzerland. That’s new. China’s furious. That isn’t new.
A destabilizing United States coupled with swelling Western spite for China make the perfect bait and trap for China to think it should enter a war it couldn’t possibly know it couldn’t possibly win, but should have and would have if someone had only listened.
Trade & Tech
Detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou wants bail conditions eased // WA Post
China
Upbeat Xi Says Time on China’s Side as Turmoil Grips U.S. // Bloomberg
Taiwan
Taiwan representative meets with US diplomat // Taipei Times
CFR rates Taiwan conflict top concern // Taipei Times
Taiwan can fill gap left by Confucius Institutes: AIT // Taipei Times
Hong Kong
US-China Row: US sanctions pro-China officials // Taipei Times
Korean Peninsula
Kim Jong Un Unveils New Submarine Missile Threat as Trump Exits // MSN News
Military Faceoff
USS Gerald R. Ford Problems: Carrier Can’t Launch Fighters // Popular Mechanics
Lockheed Martin Delivers HELIOS Laser Weapon System to U.S. Navy // Naval News