U.S allies in Asia alarmed as think tank calls for pullback
A DW report, reprinted via PACNEWS, says a U.S. think-tank proposal to end alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines and pull back to the second island chain has alarmed regional analysts. They warn it would embolden China and North Korea, weaken deterrence and risk nuclear proliferation. Japan appears mainly as one of the named allies and through an Okinawa/first-island-chain reference.
Read the original
China rejects New Zealand spy allegations as false
Reuters-sourced report that China's embassy has dismissed the NZSIS threat report's claim that China conducts espionage "at scale" in New Zealand, calling it fabricated Cold War thinking, while noting NZ's reliance on China as its largest trading partner.
Read the original
Calls growing to sack Winston Peters after his ‘go back to your own country’ remarks to NZ MP
Opposition Labour and Green figures say Foreign Minister Winston Peters can't stay in the role after telling Chinese-born Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan to "go back to your own country". They argue it harms ties with China, and PM Luxon called the remarks offensive but Peters hasn't apologised.
Read the original