{"id":246872,"date":"2025-02-26T02:46:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T02:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/26\/wednesday-briefing-taiwan-considers-a-changed-u-s\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T02:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T02:46:18","slug":"wednesday-briefing-taiwan-considers-a-changed-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/26\/wednesday-briefing-taiwan-considers-a-changed-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Briefing: Taiwan Considers a Changed U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/26\/multimedia\/26ambriefing-asia-taiwan-2-tgvk\/26ambriefing-asia-taiwan-2-tgvk-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Wednesday Briefing: Taiwan Considers a Changed U.S.\" title=\"Wednesday Briefing: Taiwan Considers a Changed U.S.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-12cecdad\">Taiwan watches as Trump turns on Ukraine<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Taiwan <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/asia\/trump-ukraine-taiwan.html\" title=\"\">could be forced to consider its political future<\/a> as President Trump turns against Ukraine and abandons Western efforts to punish Russia. Ukraine and Taiwan share a kinship: small democracies laid claim to by hulking, authoritarian neighbors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Lai Ching-te, Taiwan\u2019s president, has already been trying to prevent any serious breach with Trump. This month, he announced that the country would increase military spending. He also said the island \u2014 which has more semiconductor fabrication plants than any other place in the world \u2014 would come up with proposals in response to Trump\u2019s demand that more such plants be built in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As China continues to send fighter jets and warships nearly every day to probe Taiwan\u2019s defenses, the island\u2019s ability to deter a potential attack hinges on whether the U.S. stands ready to help and even send forces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Diplomacy: <\/strong>Trump doesn\u2019t appear to have a strong commitment to Taiwanese democracy. Some fear he might put Taiwan\u2019s interests at risk if he negotiates a big trade deal with Beijing. Xi Jinping, China\u2019s leader, has told Trump that Taiwan is a key concern in their relationship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-35fda1eb\">Britain said it would increase military spending<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/europe\/uk-defense-spending-starmer.html\" title=\"\">Britain would significantly raise its military spending<\/a> by 2027. The increase was intended to send a powerful signal about burden sharing to Trump ahead of their meeting at the White House tomorrow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The increase would amount to a spending rise of 13.4 billion pounds per year on defense, and would be paid for by scaling back on overseas development aid. Starmer said he regretted the cuts, but he presented them as a temporary measure because of the challenging new security environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Context: <\/strong>Trump\u2019s recent statements about Ukraine have reinforced fears that the U.S. is retreating from its decades-long commitment to Europe\u2019s defense. NATO\u2019s secretary general also recently called on members to spend \u201cconsiderably more\u201d than 3 percent of economic output on defense. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-5fb6ce07\">More on Trump<\/h2>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/><\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-531036a2\">Syria\u2019s new leader called for national unity<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ahmed al-Shara, Syria\u2019s interim president, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/world\/middleeast\/syria-national-dialogue-kurds.html\" title=\"\">called for unity yesterday <\/a>during a two-day conference in Damascus meant to chart the country\u2019s future after decades of dictatorship. The gathering brought together hundreds of people from Syria\u2019s many religious sects and ethnic groups, as well as journalists, community leaders and activists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But one major player was absent: The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the U.S.-backed militia that controls much of Syria\u2019s northeast. The current government had told the group that it would have to disarm and join a unified national military before it could attend the dialogue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The majority of the books nominated for this year\u2019s International Booker Prize are under 200 pages long. This isn\u2019t because of some \u201cmuch-prophesied loss of attention span,\u201d as the chair of the judging panel put it. The 13 nominees, he said, were simply the best and \u201cdon\u2019t have a wasted word.\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/books\/international-booker-prize-longlist.html\" title=\"\">Check out the full list<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Lives lived:<\/strong> Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leaped onto President John F. Kennedy\u2019s limousine as it came under fire in 1963, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/24\/us\/clint-hill-dead.html\" title=\"\">died at 93<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-74cd2b03\">100 years later, this thing is still on <\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A century ago this week, the musician Art Gillham entered a studio in New York to test a soon-to-be-transformative tool: the microphone. That was the moment when the record industry left the acoustic era and went electric.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The effects were felt across genres and styles. Instruments could be reproduced more faithfully. Standup basses were no longer outperformed by blaring horns. But the biggest beneficiaries were pop singers \u2014 microphones gave them personality, like Hollywood stars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/25\/briefing\/taiwan-us-britain-military-spending-syria-unity.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taiwan watches as Trump turns on Ukraine Taiwan could be forced to consider its political future as President Trump turns against Ukraine and abandons Western efforts to punish Russia. Ukraine and Taiwan share a kinship: small democracies laid claim to by hulking, authoritarian neighbors. President Lai Ching-te, Taiwan\u2019s president, has already been trying to prevent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/26\/multimedia\/26ambriefing-asia-taiwan-2-tgvk\/26ambriefing-asia-taiwan-2-tgvk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[235,1417,15876,2251,221,7780],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246874,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246872\/revisions\/246874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}