Latest news with #MilitaryThreat
Reuters
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
New TV show imagines China invasion, gives Taiwan viewers wake-up call
TAIPEI, July 28 (Reuters) - A new Taiwanese television series that imagines the run-up to a Chinese invasion is getting rave reviews from viewers, who said the first programme featuring the sensitive topic is a wake-up call for the public facing heightened Chinese military threat. In the show, "Zero Day Attack", a Chinese war plane goes missing near Taiwan. China then sends swarms of military boats and planes for a blockade as Taiwan goes on a war footing. Panic ensues on the streets of Taipei. At viewings in Taipei last week attendees have included the top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan Raymond Greene, who is director of the American Institute in Taiwan, and Taiwanese tycoon Robert Tsao, a strident critic of Beijing. The series is set to premiere on August 2 in Taiwan, followed by its Japanese release on Amazon Prime Video. "Presenting such a situation (of conflict) can lead to more discussion about what we should do if it really turns into reality one day," said Blair Yeh, a 35-year-old engineer, after watching the first episode in the Taipei premier last week. The premise of "Zero Day Attack" is a topic that has for years been considered too sensitive for many Taiwan filmmakers and television show creators, who fear losing access to the lucrative Chinese entertainment market. More than half of the show's crew asked to remain anonymous on the crew list, and some people including a director pulled out of the production at the last minute, its showrunner Cheng Hsin Mei told Reuters. But as China steps up military threats, including at least six rounds of major war games in the past five years and daily military activities close to Taiwan, the upcoming drama confronts the fear by setting the 10-episode series around a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The drama focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face in the days leading up to a Chinese attack, including a global financial collapse, the activation of Chinese sleeper agents and panicked residents trying to flee the island. "Without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan," the actor who plays a fictional Taiwan president says in a televised speech, urging unity after declaring war on China, in the show's trailer. The live broadcast then gets abruptly cut off, replaced by a feed of a Chinese state television anchor calling for Taiwanese to surrender and to report "hidden pro-independence activists" to Chinese soldiers after their landing in Taiwan. "We've been comfortable for a long time now," said viewer Leon Yu, 43-year-old semiconductor industry professional, adding Taiwan's freedom and democracy must be kept. "There's still a lot of people out there burying their head in the sand and don't want to face the dangers of the present."
Reuters
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia poses growing military threat to NATO members, Italy says
ROME, July 3 (Reuters) - Russia could have the ability to pose a military threat to NATO territory within five years, Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday. He was addressing lawmakers on the outcome of a NATO summit last week when the military alliance agreed to increase spending on defence and security. "Allies shared concerns about the growing threat from Russia. There are no signs of conversion of Russian production to civilian purposes, not even in the event of a ceasefire," he said. Crosetto also said Russian domestic support for the war in Ukraine, begun in 2022, apparently was intact. Without saying where the figures came from, he said Russia has lost more than a million soldiers, including 200,000 in the first six months of this year. "Yet Russia managed to mobilise another 300,000 in six months without any erosion of domestic consensus," he said. Referring to the targets set last week by NATO members to increase defence and security spending as a percentage of GDP, Crosetto said Italy had already made some provisions in the budget and would not divert resources from health or pensions, confirming a Reuters report.
UAE Moments
20-06-2025
- Politics
- UAE Moments
Khamenei: Iran "Will Not Surrender"
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered an address to the nation on Wednesday, June 18, emphasizing that the country will not surrender to the US. The address was televised in which the leader said that Iran 'will stand firm against an imposed war, just as it will stand firm against an imposed peace'. 'This nation will not surrender to anyone in the face of imposition,' he added. The Iranian leader also responded to the statements made by US President Trump, saying, "Iranians do not answer well to the language of threat". 'And the Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable consequences,' he added. This was the Iranian supreme leader's first address to the nation since Israel's attack on Iran on Friday, June 13. Ali Khamenei's address was followed by President Trump's statement at the White House on Wednesday about Iran. When asked about the US moving closer to attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, President Trump said, "You don't know that I'm going to even do it. You don't know. I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do." These statements were followed by Israeli strikes in Najafabad, which killed six people, including two children, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency. This article was previously published on bahrainmoments. To see the original article, click here
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
We must listen to the Baltic States. The Russian hybrid threat is growing
During his visit to London last week, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte issued this dire warning about the threat of Russian aggression: 'Russia could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years. Let's not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.' Rutte warned that Russia produces more ammunition in three months than Nato manufactures in a year and spotlit Chinese technology's critical role in reconstituting Russia's military arsenal. Rutte's stark warning aimed to snap European countries out of their state of complacency but received a mixed reception on the continent. As Russia helplessly watched the destruction of some of its most-prized strategic bombers and struggles to gain a decisive offensive advantage in eastern Ukraine, Rutte's framing seemed hyperbolic to many in Western Europe. For the Baltic States, however, Rutte's rhetoric was not nearly strident enough. Due to his past support for the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline and sluggish approach to increasing defence spending as Dutch Prime Minister, Rutte was already an unpopular figure in the Baltic States. Rutte's latest comments reawakened those critiques as they depicted Russia as a long-term danger rather than an urgent threat to Nato's security. The Baltic States have compelling reasons to be frustrated with Rutte's incrementalism. By illegally transiting its shadow fleet of oil tankers through the Baltic Sea, weaponising migration across land borders and carrying out disruptive cyberattacks, Russia has demonstrated that it is on a war footing with the Baltic States. By dismissing these aggressive actions as mere hybrid threats, Nato risks trivialising an existential threat to the cogency of its alliance. The mood of frustration in the Baltic States is especially pronounced because of the long build-up to Russia's current escalations against them. When I spoke to senior Estonian officials last month, they argued that Russia never truly viewed the Baltic States as sovereign after they restored their independence in 1991. As Estonia pushed for Nato membership during the 1990s, Russian ultranationalists began issuing apocalyptic threats. After earning a plurality of votes in the 1993 legislative elections, LDPR leader and ultranationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky warned Estonians to flee to Sweden on fishing boats and threatened to deport the Estonians who stayed home to Siberia. But instead of being recognised for presciently warning about the Russian threat, the Baltic States were all-too-often accused of crying wolf. Even after Russia displayed its true hand by illegally annexing Crimea in 2014 and launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Baltic States still struggled to get their message heard. In response to tightening sanctions against Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko warned in May 2021 that he would allow drugs and migrants to flood into European Union (EU) territory. Lukashenko's threats came to pass as illegal migrants overwhelmed Latvia and Lithuania's border defences in the autumn of 2021. Despite the scale of this threat, the EU refused to finance the construction of a border wall on Lithuania's frontiers. In response to the unresponsiveness of key Nato countries to their concerns, the Baltic States have taken matters into their own hands. From announcing 5 per cent of GDP defence spending targets to Lithuania's investment of $1.2 billion in border security with Belarus and Russia, three of Nato's smallest member states are setting a positive example for the rest of the alliance. These states are also trying to steer Nato towards committing to a firmer response to security threats that fall below the threshold of conventional war. Their argument is that Russia's hybrid threats are steps on an escalation ladder that could lead to full-scale war. Lithuanian officials justified this contention by arguing that shadow-fleet ships could escalate from cutting undersea cables to destroying liquefied natural gas terminals and use disruptive GPS jamming to down civilian aeroplanes. Based on its track record, Russia would maintain a level of deniability around these aggressive actions and any Baltic retaliation could lead to an invasion. As Nato's Article 5 security guarantees do not clearly extend to hybrid threats, former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves and former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis recently called for the creation of a new permanent discussion forum on hybrid threats and the potential construction of a Baltic regional security organisation with robust military capabilities. In the European Parliament and Nato gatherings, Baltic officials are calling for European countries to re-evaluate their risk aversion in confronting Russian aggression head-on and to more thoroughly sanction the financial infrastructure that supports the shadow fleet. The efficacy of Ukraine's cross-border operations and the limitations of Russia's retaliatory capacity has caused some Baltic officials to view an exclusive focus on deterrence as obsolete. Ahead of the Nato summit in the Hague later this month, there will be a major focus on Ukraine's future within the organisation. Time should also be devoted to addressing the concerns of the Nato alliance's three most vulnerable and committed participants.
