Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • Japan’s prime minister launches a panel to review her country’s defense policies as threats escalate

    Japan’s prime minister launches a panel to review her country’s defense policies as threats escalate

    TOKYO – In a landmark move signaling a major shift in Japan’s post-war security posture, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi officially launched a high-level expert panel Monday to conduct a comprehensive review of the nation’s core security and defense strategies. The initiative comes as mounting geopolitical tensions across East Asia, from intensifying military activity by China to heightened provocations from North Korea and expanded Russian military presence in the region, have pushed Tokyo to accelerate its long-planned military expansion.

    Takaichi, who assumed the premiership in October, has positioned defense upgrading as the centerpiece of her administration’s agenda, framing the expanded military capability as a critical deterrent against growing regional threats. In opening remarks delivered at her official residence at the panel’s inaugural meeting, Takaichi emphasized the urgent need to reorient Japan’s defense priorities to counter emerging threats. “The relatively stable post-Cold War international order has become a thing of the past,” she told the gathered experts. “The international situation has completely changed.”

    Drawing global lessons from ongoing conflicts, Takaichi argued Japan must adapt its military doctrine to account for new styles of combat, including asymmetric tactics and the widespread use of unmanned drone systems, while building capacity to withstand prolonged large-scale conflicts. “We need to learn the lesson from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war in the Middle East,” she added. “As the world enters an era of turbulence and Japan faces many challenges, the upcoming revision … is a crucial effort that affects Japan’s fate.”

    The security policy review is the latest step in Takaichi’s push to expand Japan’s military reach. Just one week before launching the panel, her cabinet approved a historic rollback of long-standing restrictions on lethal weapons exports, a policy shift that marked a major break from Japan’s post-World War II pacifist framework that restricted the country to self-defense-only military activity. The rollback has been widely praised by the United States and other regional defense allies, who say it will open new avenues for deepening military-industrial cooperation and integrated defense production. However, the move has drawn sharp criticism from domestic pacifist groups and the Chinese government, which argue it deviates dramatically from Japan’s post-war commitment to pacifism.

    The 15-member review panel brings together leading specialists in diplomacy, national defense, and economic policy. Over the coming months, the group will examine Japan’s existing defense frameworks against a range of plausible emergency scenarios, evaluate the current defense budget and long-term funding mechanisms, and prepare concrete policy recommendations for revision. Japan’s current national defense strategy, adopted in December 2022, set a target of doubling defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027, a commitment that totals roughly 43 trillion yen ($270 billion). Takaichi’s administration has already hit that spending target ahead of schedule, leaving analysts widely expecting the panel to consider additional increases to military outlays in its final report.

  • Draft law targets faster, easier social assistance access

    Draft law targets faster, easier social assistance access

    China’s top legislative body is moving forward with a landmark piece of social policy legislation that seeks to transform how vulnerable residents access life-changing support. The draft Social Assistance Law was tabled this Monday for its third reading at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s highest legislative organ. Under China’s standard legislative process, most bills receive final approval following three readings by the NPC Standing Committee, putting this legislation one step away from becoming official law.

    Social assistance forms a foundational pillar of China’s social safety net, designed to address sudden hardships, chronic poverty, and urgent basic needs for low-income households, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups. In its latest iteration, the draft legislation retains existing requirements to maintain full transparency and procedural fairness in the allocation of assistance. It also adds a new, explicit mandate that regulatory authorities must streamline and adapt application and approval workflows to local conditions, cutting unnecessary red tape to make it simpler for eligible people to submit applications and receive their benefits in a timelier manner.

    Alongside the social assistance bill, the legislative session is also reviewing several other key pieces of legislation aligned with China’s ongoing policy and economic priorities. These include a revised draft of the Law on State-owned Assets of Enterprises, an amendment to the Agriculture Law, and a proposed new law on national healthcare security. This slate of legislative reviews underscores the government’s ongoing push to update its legal framework to better serve public needs and support long-term social and economic development.

  • UAE ranks first globally in GEM report for fifth year

    UAE ranks first globally in GEM report for fifth year

    For the fifth year running, the United Arab Emirates has retained its position as the world’s leading nation for entrepreneurship, according to the newly released 2025/2026 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report. Outperforming dozens of advanced economies across the globe, the country has once again solidified its reputation as the world’s most favorable environment for launching and scaling new business ventures.

    Across eight core performance metrics for high-income economies, the UAE claimed the number one spot. These metrics span physical infrastructure development, targeted and supportive government policy frameworks, tax and administrative procedural policies, national government-led entrepreneurship programs, research and development knowledge transfer, market dynamic-fueled ease of new entry, regulatory burden reduction for new market entrants, and formal entrepreneurial education.

    On two additional key indicators – entrepreneurial financing and access to startup capital – the UAE took second place globally, showcasing the strength and adaptive capacity of its national financial system. This strong performance confirms that the UAE’s economic landscape is fully prepared to empower early-stage startups and expand their opportunities for sustainable growth and regional or global expansion.

    Notably, the UAE is one of only four countries worldwide that have met or exceeded the “sufficiency” benchmark across every foundational framework condition measured by the GEM entrepreneurship index. This achievement underscores its status as a global leader in entrepreneurial ecosystems, underpinned by world-class infrastructure, efficient and proactive government policies, and robust digital readiness.

    Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism, emphasized the country’s pride in this milestone, noting that the consecutive top ranking reflects the nation’s longstanding commitment to strengthening its entrepreneurial ecosystem and locking in its status as the world’s most entrepreneur-friendly economy and top global destination for business establishment.

    He attributed the sustained success directly to the UAE leadership’s forward-thinking vision, which centers entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as core pillars of building a competitive, innovation-driven knowledge economy. Al Marri also highlighted the UAE economy’s proven high resilience and its proven ability to adapt rapidly to shifting regional and global economic conditions.

    The minister added that the GEM results reflect the strength and cohesive integration of pro-competitive policies and regulatory reforms rolled out by the UAE to nurture a supportive entrepreneurial landscape. Key initiatives driving this success include the national “UAE: Global Entrepreneurship Capital” campaign, which has successfully positioned the country as the premier destination for global talent, innovators, and founders.

    These outcomes also align directly with the goals of the UAE’s “We the UAE 2031” national vision, which aims to establish the country as a global hub for the new economy by supporting high-growth potential sectors including advanced technology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, space exploration, and financial technology.

    In the 2025 National Entrepreneurship Context Index (NECI), which measures a country’s overall entrepreneurial climate based on independent expert assessments, the UAE scored a robust 7.0 out of 10. This high score reflects the deep robustness of the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the high level of confidence among local business owners and international investors operating in the UAE.

    The GEM report also highlighted that the UAE is among just six countries where entrepreneurs uniformly identify artificial intelligence as a critical driver of growth over the next three years, demonstrating the nation’s advanced preparedness for the transition to a digital, knowledge-based economy.

    In the “international access” metric, the UAE ranked among the top five countries worldwide for startups’ ability to enter and scale in external global markets. The report attributed this success to the UAE’s world-class physical infrastructure and integrated logistics network, which it described as exceptional in connecting local entrepreneurs with global consumer markets.

    Data from the report confirms the UAE has built a dynamic, fast-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem: more than one in five UAE adults (over 20 percent of the adult population) are currently engaged in launching new business ventures. This high participation rate reflects the strength of the incentives and enabling frameworks the country has put in place to support early-stage founders.

    The UAE’s Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate hit a strong 19.2 percent, signaling a healthy, consistent pipeline of new ventures. The GEM report notes that this steady flow of new entrepreneurial projects stems from a supportive ecosystem where launching a business is widely viewed as an attractive career choice, facilitated by streamlined registration processes and backed by robust government and financial support.

    The UAE continues to draw global entrepreneurial talent, with 19.6 percent of citizen adults and 22.4 percent of resident adults engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. This gap highlights the country’s success in attracting skilled, ambitious founders from across the globe and encouraging entrepreneurial participation across all segments of society.

    The report also singled out the UAE’s success in advancing female entrepreneurship, noting that the country’s integrated ecosystem guarantees women founders equal access to critical resources and growth opportunities.

    More than half of UAE-based entrepreneurs identify family cultural traditions as a key motivator for launching and growing their businesses, reflecting the deep embeddedness of entrepreneurial culture across UAE society.

    In school-based entrepreneurial education, the UAE also made notable gains, ranking among the top five countries globally. The country’s education system prioritizes building core entrepreneurial competencies in students, including creative thinking, complex problem-solving, risk assessment, and opportunity identification, laying the groundwork for a new generation of future founders.

    Finally, the report emphasized that UAE entrepreneurship is supported by an advanced, flexible financing landscape that offers founders a wide range of pathways to secure capital for launching and scaling their businesses. This strength is visible in the diversity of funding sources available, from government-backed grant and seed initiatives to independent investment funds and global venture capital firms. This comprehensive support boosts founder confidence and enables innovators to turn early-stage ideas into scalable, globally competitive businesses, advancing the country’s vision of building a knowledge- and innovation-led national economy.

    As one of the world’s most authoritative independent research projects tracking global entrepreneurial activity, GEM has conducted more than two million interviews with stakeholders since its launch. The 2025/2026 edition of the report covers 53 global economies, representing approximately 43 percent of the world’s population and 57 percent of total global GDP, with analysis drawn from extensive input from hundreds of entrepreneurship experts.

  • Torrential rain floods Qinzhou, Guangxi, as city raises flood alert

    Torrential rain floods Qinzhou, Guangxi, as city raises flood alert

    On Monday, an intense weather system delivered record-breaking torrential downpours to Qinzhou, a coastal city in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, triggering widespread flash flooding that forced local authorities to activate a Level III flood control emergency response.

    Local meteorological authorities confirmed that the heaviest precipitation was concentrated between midnight and 8 a.m. that day, drenching the city’s central urban districts and outlying surrounding townships. The most severe rainfall was recorded in Jiulong town, located in Qinzhou’s Qinnan district, which measured a total accumulated rainfall of 362.2 millimeters over the eight-hour window. At the storm’s peak around 4 a.m. Monday, the area also registered an extreme hourly rainfall rate of 143.3 millimeters, far exceeding the threshold for severe flash flood warnings.

    The downpour quickly overwhelmed local drainage systems, leading to rapid waterlogging in multiple downtown neighborhoods and surrounding suburban areas, as documented by on-site photojournalists covering the disaster response. As of the latest update, local emergency management teams have been deployed to conduct evacuation operations, clear blocked drainage lines, and monitor water levels across at-risk river basins to mitigate further risks to residents and their property.

  • China builds integrated space-air-ground-sea environmental monitoring network with 150 satellites: ministry

    China builds integrated space-air-ground-sea environmental monitoring network with 150 satellites: ministry

    China has established a groundbreaking, fully integrated space-air-ground-sea ecological and environmental monitoring network that draws on data from approximately 150 satellites, the country’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment has announced. The development was revealed during a press conference held on Monday by Zhang Dawei, director of the ministry’s ecological and environmental monitoring department, who centered remarks on a new high-precision greenhouse gas detection satellite launched into orbit on April 17.

    This newly launched satellite carries five cutting-edge scientific instruments, including a lidar system and a hyperspectral greenhouse gas monitor. With this technology on board, Zhang explained, China has become the first country in the world to achieve integrated active and passive greenhouse gas detection from space. The satellite is capable of carrying out large-scale, high-accuracy monitoring of major greenhouse gases and key gaseous pollutants across the entire globe, marking a major milestone in the evolution of China’s modern ecological and environmental monitoring infrastructure, Zhang emphasized.

    Currently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment serves as the lead operational user for eight dedicated environmental and atmospheric satellites, and maintains coordination agreements to access data from more than 140 additional commercial and civilian satellites across the country. Zhang noted that together, this fleet of satellites is equipped with multispectral sensors featuring a broad range of wavebands and short orbital revisit cycles, enabling the ministry to complete a full-coverage ecological “health check” every two months across 3.3 million square kilometers of national nature reserves and protected areas falling within China’s ecological conservation red lines.

    Beyond inland protected areas, the integrated monitoring system also conducts quarterly systematic scans of 21,000 kilometers of China’s mainland coastline and 100,000 square kilometers of its adjacent coastal waters. These scans allow authorities to rapidly identify human-caused ecological damage and illegal encroachment on protected coastal ecosystems.

    In addition to broad-area regional scanning, the satellite fleet also carries hyperspectral sensors designed for targeted, high-precision detection. These sensors can accurately resolve atmospheric chemical components and provide quantitative measurements of trace harmful gases including ozone, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, delivering critical data that supports evidence-based air pollution control efforts.

    On a global scale, the network’s sensors can pinpoint the exact location of methane leaks from oil and gas extraction sites, coal mines and municipal landfills, tracing pollutant emissions directly to individual responsible facilities. Completing the system’s robust capabilities, many satellites in the fleet are equipped with radar instruments that enable all-weather, 24/7 monitoring operations that do not depend on natural light and are unaffected by cloudy or severe weather conditions.

  • Beijing metro handles 3.58 billion trips in 2025

    Beijing metro handles 3.58 billion trips in 2025

    Beijing’s rapid urban rail transit network closed out 2025 with robust performance, recording a total of 3.58 billion passenger trips across the year as city authorities ramp up investments to enhance service quality and operational efficiency, according to findings from an official third-party assessment.

    Data published on the Beijing Infrastructure Investment website reveals that by the end of 2025, the city’s metro operating mileage expanded to 909 kilometers, connecting more residential, commercial, and industrial hubs across the Chinese capital. On average, the system handled 9.8 million passenger trips per day in 2025, with weekday ridership reaching an average of 11.15 million trips, reflecting the network’s central role in supporting the city’s daily mobility.

    The comprehensive evaluation was commissioned by the Beijing Commission of Transport, and covered 27 operational lines across the network. Newly opened sections that had been in service for less than 12 months — including the southern extension of Line 6, the central section of Line 17, and the full Line 18 — were excluded from the assessment to ensure data consistency. Evaluators focused on three core domains: passenger satisfaction, overall service capacity, and key operational performance indicators.

    Survey results show that passengers gave overwhelmingly positive feedback on the metro system across multiple key dimensions, including accessibility to stations, in-station environment, public order on platforms and trains, and routine facility maintenance. The system also maintained high service standards across ticketing processes, waiting times, and basic passenger support functions. Operational performance was equally strong, with 10 critical metrics — including on-time train service and overall facility reliability — earning perfect scores in the assessment.

    Per the final evaluation report, the Beijing metro management will continue to prioritize user-centered service upgrades, reinforce strict operational safety protocols, and adjust capacity allocation to match real-time passenger demand, all with the goal of delivering safer, more efficient travel experiences for commuters and visitors alike.

    The metro’s strong performance is part of a broader steady expansion of Beijing’s public transport ecosystem. Separate data from the Beijing Bureau of Statistics shows that by the end of 2025, the city’s public bus and trolleybus network included 1,252 routes, covering a total operating length of 28,928.8 kilometers. The bus network carried 1.6 billion passenger trips across 2025, working in tandem with the metro system to meet the mobility needs of Beijing’s large population.

  • Pakistan accused of attacking Afghan university

    Pakistan accused of attacking Afghan university

    Fresh cross-border violence has reignited tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, after Pakistani jets and drones carried out strikes on the eastern Afghan province of Kunar that have left at least seven civilians dead and 75 more injured, multiple informed sources have confirmed to the BBC. Among the casualties are multiple students and one faculty member from Kunar University, with the ruling Taliban administration confirming that 30 of those wounded are currently enrolled university students.

    Local accounts from the strike zone paint a picture of chaos and destruction. A Kunar University professor who was on campus during the attacks described hearing deafening, terrifying explosions that rippled across the entire university grounds. Official statements from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education later confirmed that university buildings and their surrounding residential and public areas suffered extensive structural damage from the bombings.

    Pakistan’s Ministry of Information has issued a direct denial of the claims, dismissing reports that strikes targeted the university and residential neighborhoods as completely false manufactured information.

    This latest escalation comes just weeks after a far deadlier Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation facility in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul. United Nations officials have confirmed that the earlier attack killed 269 people, making it one of the deadliest cross-border strikes in the region in recent years.

    The resumption of violence breaks a fragile ceasefire that had held across most of the shared border for nearly a month. That truce was brokered through Chinese diplomatic mediation, which brought representatives from both nations to talks in the Chinese city of Urumqi in early April aimed at de-escalating months of growing cross-border conflict.

    Over the past six months, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in recurring clashes and cross-border strikes between the two neighboring nations. Pakistan has repeatedly justified its air operations inside Afghan territory, stating that all strikes are targeted exclusively at militant hideouts that it says operate from Afghan soil to launch attacks against Pakistani targets. Notably, Pakistan has recently taken on a diplomatic mediation role itself, working to de-escalate tensions between Iran and the United States amid their ongoing standoff.

  • Former National Railway Administration head indicted with bribery

    Former National Railway Administration head indicted with bribery

    In an official announcement made Monday, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) confirmed that Fei Dongbin, the former director of the National Railway Administration, has been formally indicted on suspicion of bribery following a year-long investigation by national supervisory authorities.

    The case follows a standard legal process for major corruption probes in China: after the National Commission of Supervision completed its fact-finding and investigation, the matter was transferred to procuratorial organs for prosecution review. The SPP first approved a formal arrest warrant for Fei, then designated the Changchun People’s Procuratorate based in northeast China’s Jilin Province to handle the prosecution of the case. The prosecuting office recently submitted its formal indictment to the Changchun Intermediate People’s Court, opening the next phase of judicial proceedings.

    Per official case documents, Fei is accused of abusing a series of senior positions he held over decades of work in both the national railway system and local government to extract illegal gains. His career included senior leadership roles as executive deputy director of the former Beijing Railway Bureau and former Jinan Railway Bureau, director of the former Hohhot Railway Bureau, mayor of Ulaanqab in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, vice-governor of central China’s Henan Province, and finally head of the National Railway Administration starting in September 2022. Prosecutors allege that Fei used his official influence to coordinate with other state functionaries to secure improper business and personal benefits for specific organizations and individuals, and in exchange, illegally accepted an exceptionally large sum of money and high-value assets.

    Throughout the prosecution review process, legal procedural requirements were strictly followed: prosecuting officials informed Fei of all his litigation rights as a defendant, conducted formal interrogations, and accepted and reviewed arguments presented by Fei’s defense legal team. Prosecutors have formally stated that Fei must bear criminal liability for the suspected bribery offense.

    A 55-year-old native of Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, Fei began his professional career in 1991, joining the Communist Party of China five years later in 1996. His entire career was rooted in public service, starting with an entry-level role at the former Shenyang Railway Bureau in his home province, where he rose through the ranks to hold senior roles including deputy director and chief engineer. Following 2017, Fei transitioned into senior local government roles, first serving as deputy Party chief and mayor of Ulaanqab, then vice-governor of Henan Province, before his appointment to lead the National Railway Administration in 2022.

    Fei’s tenure at the top of the national railway regulator ended abruptly when he was placed under official investigation for corruption in 2025. By December that same year, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from all public office, ahead of the formal indictment announced this week. The case is part of China’s ongoing national anti-corruption campaign that targets misconduct by senior officials across all critical public sectors, including transportation infrastructure.

  • Chinese and Kyrgyz defense ministers discuss bilateral military cooperation

    Chinese and Kyrgyz defense ministers discuss bilateral military cooperation

    On Monday, during an official invited visit to Kyrgyzstan, China’s Minister of National Defense Dong Jun met face-to-face with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Mukambetov Ruslan Mustafaevich, for high-level bilateral defense discussions.

    Prior to the formal negotiations, Minister Mukambetov extended a formal welcome to Dong by hosting a traditional honor guard ceremony, where the two leaders jointly inspected the guard of honor to mark the significance of the diplomatic meeting.

    According to an official statement released by China’s Ministry of National Defense immediately following the talks, the two defense chiefs held a thorough, in-depth exchange of views across a wide range of critical topics. These included the current state of bilateral state-to-state and military-to-military relations, evolving dynamics in the international and regional security landscape, and other shared concerns that impact both nations.

    Both sides reached a clear mutual agreement: they will continue to follow through on the consensus that has already been established by the two countries’ heads of state, and work to expand and deepen practical, on-the-ground military cooperation in the coming period. This meeting marks another step forward in strengthening the constructive defense partnership between China and Kyrgyzstan, aligning with long-term efforts to boost regional stability and cross-border mutual trust.

  • China issues alerts for strong winds, heavy rain and convective weather

    China issues alerts for strong winds, heavy rain and convective weather

    China’s top meteorological body has launched a Level IV emergency response as the nation prepares to face a spell of hazardous weather, including strong winds, intense downpours and severe convective activity. On Monday, the National Meteorological Center issued a tiered set of weather alerts: a yellow warning for strong gusts, and blue warnings for both heavy rain and severe convective weather.

    China operates a standardized four-tier color-coded warning system for wind and rain events, where red marks the most severe level, followed by orange, yellow, and blue as the least urgent. For severe convective weather, the country uses a three-tier warning framework.

    According to the center’s forecast, the strong wind event will impact a wide swathe of northern China between 8 a.m. Monday and 8 a.m. Tuesday. Affected regions include the provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, Liaoning and Shandong, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, as well as the direct-controlled municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin. Sustained average wind speeds across these areas are projected to hit 10 to 20 meters per second, with gusts capable of reaching up to 28 meters per second in hard-hit zones. These conditions are strong enough to uproot fully grown trees and cause structural damage to buildings and infrastructure.

    Over the same 24-hour window, heavy rainfall will lash multiple regions in southern and central China, including Chongqing Municipality, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Some localities are expected to record total precipitation of 100 to 140 millimeters, with short-duration intense rain events driving the bulk of the accumulation. Hourly rainfall totals are forecast to peak at 20 to 50 millimeters, and the downpours will be paired with severe convective hazards including thunderstorms, sudden wind gusts and hail.

    In specific high-risk zones, the hazards carry elevated risks to life and property. Parts of southwestern Guizhou and western Guangxi face dangerous thunderstorm gales, where gusts could be strong enough to collapse unstable informal housing and damage power transmission infrastructure. In sections of eastern and southwestern Hunan, as well as northern Guangxi, hourly rainfall will climb above 50 millimeters, with some locations even exceeding 60 millimeters of rain in a single hour – conditions that raise the risk of flash flooding and secondary disasters.

    To reduce the risk of harm, the National Meteorological Center has issued a series of public safety guidance. Vessels operating in affected coastal and inland waters are urged to proceed with extreme caution to avoid wind and wave-related accidents. Residents across all impacted regions have been advised to cut back on non-essential outdoor activities, and maintain a safe distance from flimsy temporary structures such as construction scaffolding and temporary market stalls.

    Meteorological officials have also called on local authorities to take proactive preparatory measures. These include stepping up fire prevention work, securing loose or easily moved outdoor structures, prepping urban and rural drainage systems to handle heavy runoff, and putting early response plans in place to manage secondary disasters such as mountain torrents, landslides and mudslides.