Chinese ships and aircraft monitored the Aotearoa, with Chinese jets carrying out simulated attacks. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

China's defence ministry said on Thursday that Japan will have to pay a "painful price" if it steps out of line over Taiwan, responding to Japanese plans to deploy missiles on an island some 100 km (62 miles) from Taiwan's coast.

The remarks come amid the two countries’ worst diplomatic crisis in years, after the Japanese prime minister said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

President Trump spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week, and the Chinese government said Xi outlined what it called China’s "principled" position on Taiwan. The self-governing democracy of 23 million has never been part of Communist China,

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te has unveiled a special $40B defense budget over the next eight years, following U.S. pressure on the island to boost military spending. "This landmark package will not only fund significant new arms acquisitions from the U.

That role also means a war over Taiwan could be "cataclysmic," the report warned, potentially "wiping out as much as 10 percent of global GDP"—an unprecedented economic hit in modern times. The authors said the ramifications of such a scenario could be "on par with the 2008 Global Financial Crisis."

As China reportedly mulls a ban on Japanese seafood amid a standoff between the Asian neighbors, Taiwan's leader shows support for Tokyo, with his lunch.