Japan Seeks Possibility of Trade Deal With US as G-7 Nears
Japanese top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said he sought the possibility of a trade agreement with his US counterparts through detailed discussions in Washington, while giving no clue over whether the two nations' leaders may announce a deal at an expected summit in the coming days.
Akazawa met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for 70 minutes and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for 45 minutes respectively in Washington on Friday hours after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had talks on tariffs by phone with President Donald Trump.
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Bloomberg
16 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Japan Seeks Possibility of Trade Deal With US as G-7 Nears
Japanese top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said he sought the possibility of a trade agreement with his US counterparts through detailed discussions in Washington, while giving no clue over whether the two nations' leaders may announce a deal at an expected summit in the coming days. Akazawa met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for 70 minutes and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for 45 minutes respectively in Washington on Friday hours after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had talks on tariffs by phone with President Donald Trump.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Chinese social media posts falsely claim German right-wing leader praises China
China's former consul general to Belfast Zhang Meifang shared the 13-second clip of Weidel speaking in German on her account on X on May 21, 2025. "Co-chairwoman of Germany's AfD Weidel said only China's strength can defeat the United States' arrogance and force it sit down and negotiate!" its caption says. "Throughout history, the United States has only sat down for equal negotiations twice -- once during the Korean War, and again during the trade war. China was on the other side of the negotiations both times." Simplified Chinese text overlaid on the clip largely repeats the claim. The post appeared alongside a tide of false claims about the trade war between Washington and Beijing circulating online, which were amplified by Chinese state media outlets (archived link). The two sides announced a truce on May 12 that halted tit-for-tat tariffs announced since President Donald Trump's return to the White House, with a further "framework" agreement reached on June 10 (archived link). China would supply rare earth minerals to the United States, which in turn would allow Chinese students to remain in US universities. Posts suggesting Weidel spoke about the trade war were shared elsewhere on X, TikTok and Weibo. Social media users appeared to believe the circulating claim, with one saying, "She is the guiding light of Germany". Another wrote, "Such an outspoken woman!" Despite having lived and worked in China, Weidel rarely publicly comments on the country (archived link). However, her subtitled speeches circulate widely on Chinese social media, with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle attributing her popularity to AfD and Beijing having similar stances on issues such as European military aid for Ukraine (archived link). The circulating video in fact shows Weidel criticising the German government, not praising China. A reverse image search found the clip was taken from a livestream of her speech at an AfD rally in Thuringia on August 31, 2024, a month before regional elections in Germany (archived link). During her remarks, she called the government's deportation of 28 Afghan nationals -- who German authorities said were "convicted offenders" with no right to remain -- a day before the AfD rally a "gimmick" (archived link). The false clip can be seen at the 55:04 mark of the livestream, where she went on to say, "Nothing is achieved. It should be up to a thousand people, not just 28." She did not mention China during the speech. German media reported Weidel told rally-goers that AfD would "ban Antifa as a terrorist organisation" if her party came to power during her speech (archived link).
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Japan Says Chinese Fighter Jet Flew Too Close to Its Military Plane
Japanese defense officials said on Thursday that a Chinese fighter jet had flown abnormally close to a Japanese military plane over international waters in the Pacific Ocean last weekend, raising concerns about China's growing military actions in the region. Japan's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that a Chinese J-15 fighter jet had made a peculiar approach to a Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft conducting surveillance over the Pacific. The Chinese jet flew as close as 150 feet next to the Japanese plane on Saturday, and cut in front within 3,000 feet of the nose on Sunday, introducing the likelihood of a crash, the Defense Ministry said. The Chinese fighter jet had originated from the Shandong, one of the two aircraft carriers that China had sent into the Pacific Ocean last weekend to conduct exercises, the first the carriers had done together so far from the Chinese coast. The exercises displayed Beijing's growing military reach. 'Japan expressed a serious concern and requested a prevention of reoccurrence of such incidents as it could trigger accidental collisions,' Gen Nakatani, Japan's defense minister, said in a security committee meeting at the Diet, as Japan's Parliament is known. Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, the chief of Japan's joint staff, told reporters on Thursday that he was concerned about the possibility of a collision between the Chinese jet, which appeared to be equipped with missiles, and the Japanese patrol aircraft. Gen. Yoshida said that it was difficult to judge the intention behind the Chinese jet's maneuvers and whether they were a threat. He said he was wary of the broader trend of China's increased and expanded military activities, stating that the Chinese military had been making unusual maneuvers 'intermittently and continuously.' China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said on Thursday that the two countries' defense ministries were in communication over the near misses. But he suggested that Japan was at fault and defended China's activity in the airspace. 'Let me stress that the close maneuvers of the Japanese airplanes against China is the fundamental reason of such a situation,' Mr. Lin said at a news conference in Beijing. 'We hope that Japan will view the activities objectively and rationally.' In another aerial encounter involving the Chinese military, a Chinese fighter jet flew within 20 feet of an American military aircraft over the South China Sea in 2022, which the U.S. military said had nearly caused a collision. A crash involving a Chinese military plane was fatal in 2001, when a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. The crash killed the Chinese pilot and forced the American plane to make an emergency landing in China. Meaghan Tobin contributed reporting from Taipei.
