The U.S. national security community is increasingly focused on threats emanating from the Indo-Pacific. Threat Status at The Washington Times delivers daily and big-picture coverage of the region — from China's expanding military to high-stakes economic and technology developments and the plight of democracy among America's allies.
Finland’s government is facing heavy pressure and accusations of racism from several Asian countries after its representative to the 2025 Miss Universe pageant was seen pulling the corners of her eyes in a photo — and some Finnish politicians posted their own photos repeating the gesture.
Missouri’s top prosecutor said China is suing after the state pressed federal officials for help collecting on a roughly $25 billion court judgment related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If America’s relationship with Europe defined the 20th century, then the 21st century will be marked by Washington’s connections to the Indo-Pacific.
The U.S. is amid a high-stakes second space race, and its chief adversary, communist China, is “overwhelmingly” achieving its goals up there, top Pentagon officials warned at a major conference Thursday.
Thailand’s Parliament was dissolved Friday for new elections early next year as the country engaged in deadly fighting with Cambodia.
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Japan and caused small tsunami waves but no apparent damage Friday, days after a stronger quake in the same region.
While engaging in shuttle diplomacy to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Trump administration should grapple with the significance of the moment relative to China’s new cold war on us and our allies.
Nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 heavy bombers took to the skies over the Sea of Japan with an escort of Japanese F-35 and F-15 fighter jets Thursday, two days after Washington had verbally sided with Tokyo in its fast-escalating confrontation with Beijing.
The State Department on Tuesday offered its first muted backing for Japan over an incident last week involving a threatening radar illumination of two Japanese fighter jets by two Chinese fighters.
Cambodia said Thailand launched more airstrikes Thursday, as heavy fighting flared along the two countries’ border and both sides accused the other of violating their sovereignty along the contested border region.
U.S. strategic bombers joined a fleet of Japanese fighter jets in a joint military exercise meant to demonstrate their military cooperation around Japan’s airspace, defense officials said Thursday, as tensions with China escalate.
National Security Correspondents John Seward and Bill Gertz break down the key takeaways from the 2025 Reagan Defense Forum.
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters.
South Korea will require advertisers to label their ads made with artificial intelligence technologies from next year as it seeks to curb a surge of deceptive promotions featuring fabricated experts or deep-faked celebrities endorsing food or pharmaceutical products on social media.
The American playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris has been released from detention in Japan three weeks after he was taken into custody on suspicion of smuggling the psychedelic drug ecstasy.
Australia’s concerns about China’s rising might and jitters about America’s commitment to its Pacific allies were not eased by this week’s meetings between top officials from Sydney and the Trump administration.
The looming Capitol Hill vote on the annual defense authorization will be a test of whether Congress is ready to deliver on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s push for major reforms to accelerate the Pentagon’s process for acquiring new advanced tech weaponry for American warfighters.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are meeting their Australian counterparts Monday in Washington for annual talks expected to focus on Indo-Pacific security and countering China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, including in the South China Sea and directed at Taiwan.
A powerful 7. 6-magnitude earthquake struck off northern Japan on Monday, triggering a tsunami of up to 40 centimeters in coastal communities in the region, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.
China’s simmering dispute with Japan escalated over the weekend from name-calling to dangerous games of chicken between fighter jets, while Beijing’s info warriors ramped up a news and social media campaign questioning Tokyo’s sovereignty over the Ryukyus, a strategic island chain near Taiwan.
China’s exports rebounded in November after an unexpected contraction the previous month, pushing its trade surplus past $1 trillion for the first time, according to data released Monday.
Thailand launched airstrikes along the disputed border with Cambodia on Monday as both sides accused the other of breaking a ceasefire that halted fighting earlier this year.
Japan and Australia urged calm on Sunday after Chinese military aircraft locked radar on Japanese fighter jets, a month after the Japanese leader’s recent remarks on Taiwan that stirred tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
Hong Kong voters are casting ballots Sunday in their second legislative election since a 2021 overhaul of the system eliminated the pro-democracy opposition in the Chinese territory.
Hong Kong’s national security police arrested a man on Saturday in the first publicly confirmed arrest relating to criticism of authorities over a high-rise apartment blaze that killed at least 159 people.
The ongoing criminal trial of Linda Sun, a former aide to two New York governors, on illegal foreign agent charges highlights what prosecutors say is China’s large-scale operations to influence the U.S. government and the public at large to back Chinese Communist Party policies.
Thailand authorities have seized more than $300 million from two Bangkok banks in a new crackdown on international criminals accused of laundering money from online scam centers in neighboring Cambodia and Myanmar, but the top suspects are still at large.
China’s government has penetrated networks used to control the U.S. electric grid and could use the covert access to shut down the flow of electricity to Americans in a crisis or conflict, grid experts warned Congress this week.
China on Wednesday blasted the U.K. government’s latest delay in deciding whether to approve the construction of a huge Chinese Embassy in London.
Beijing is “out for blood” and wants to exact a toll on Japan for recent signals that Tokyo would view a Chinese attack on Taiwan as a threat to Japan’s security, according to a leading scholar on China’s foreign policy.
The nuclear genie keeps trying to wriggle its way out of the bottle in South Korea, with President Lee Jae-myung addressing rumors about Seoul using the technology.
Hong Kong will set up an independent committee headed by a judge to determine the cause of a deadly apartment block fire that shocked the city, and to make recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, its leader said Tuesday.
In August, North Korean state media released photos of Kim Jong-un bowing before the portraits of soldiers killed in Ukraine, hugging grieving families and pinning medals on returning troops. In a rare display of public mourning, the North Korean leader described the fallen as “great heroes” and “martyrs,” his “heart aching” at their loss.
South Korea has unleashed its largest-ever sanctions package — reportedly even larger than that deployed against North Korea — targeting transnational crime syndicates in Southeast Asia.
Firefighters battled for a second day to extinguish a blaze at a high-rise apartment complex in Hong Kong on Thursday, as the death toll rose to 83 in one of the deadliest blazes in the city’s modern history.
Washington Times columnist Miles Yu, one of the nation’s leading China experts, incurred the wrath of the Chinese Communist Party recently, highlighting the global reach of his reports.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has gone on a widespread media offensive to make clear the democratic island’s — or at least, his party’s — determination to defend itself.
India has lodged a protest with China over what it called an “arbitrary detention” of an Indian citizen at the Shanghai airport after the traveler from a northeastern state said she was held for hours because Chinese authorities refused to recognize her passport.
The Trump administration secured a significant national security win last month by negotiating a one-year pause on Chinese export controls on rare earth elements.
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who recently triggered China’s fury with a comment about Taiwan, said Tuesday that she received a call from U.S. President Donald Trump right after he spoke with China’s leader.
China launched the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft on Tuesday to help bring back a team of astronauts after a damaged spacecraft left them temporarily stranded on China’s space station.
China’s propaganda drive against Japan over official comments about defending Taiwan has reached an unusually high level, with one outlet calling for the use of nuclear missile strikes to end alleged Tokyo “militarism.”
Beijing’s hybrid war tactics are fueling fierce blowback in Japan and the Philippines, two U.S.-allied island nations ideally suited to thwart a Chinese encirclement or blockade of Taiwan.
