06/02/2026

FRIDAY | FEB 6, 2026 7 Taipei-Washington relations ‘rock solid’ TAIPEI: Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said yesterday the island’s ties with the United States “will not change”, after Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned Washington over arms sales to Taipei during a call with US President Donald Trump. “Taiwan-US relations are rock solid, and all cooperation programmes will continue and will not change,“ said Lai. He said Washington’s “commitments (to Taipei) remain unchanged” and “there are excellent channels of communication” between the two sides, without giving further details. His comments come after Xi on Wednesday called for “mutual respect” in strengthening relations with Washington, while issuing a warning about Taiwan, Beijing’s state media reported. “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations. The United States must handle arms sales to Taiwan with caution,“ said Xi, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Trump described the conversation as “excellent” and said relations between Washington and Beijing are “extremely good”. “The relationship with China and my personal relationship with Xi are extremely good, and we both realise how important it is to keep it that way.“ He said they discussed trade, Taiwan, the Russian war against Ukraine, Iran and his planned trip to China, which he said: “I very much look forward to”. China’s Communist Party has never ruled democratic Taiwan but Beijing claims the island as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex it. Washington does not formally recognise Taiwan but is the island territory’s main military backer, although the tone of that support has softened slightly under Trump. The United States approved US$11 billion (RM43 billion) worth of arms to Taiwan in December, Taipei said. China responded shortly afterwards with major live-fire drills simulating a blockade around Taiwan’s key ports. Commenting on the Trump-Xi call, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the island supports efforts to“reduce the risks posed by any unilateral use of force or threats”. – AFP Pokemon theme park opens in Tokyo TOKYO: The first permanent Pokemon theme park opened in Tokyo yesterday, featuring cute rides and a woodland area where visitors can try and “catch ‘em all”. It is Japan’s latest tourist attraction catering to a record influx of overseas travellers and tickets are already sold out for the next two months. Visitors to PokePark Kanto, within Tokyo’s largest amusement park Yomiuri Land, are greeted by statues of electric mouse Pikachu and other creatures from the franchise. Pokemon, one of Japan’s top cultural exports, began in 1996 with video games on Nintendo’s Game Boy console. Inspired by the Japanese summer childhood tradition of bug-collecting, players catch and train in battle hundreds of “pocket monsters”. The phenomenon has evolved since then to become wildly popular worldwide, with anime series, movies, a trading card game and the augmented reality app “Pokemon Go”. PokePark Kanto has two areas – a hilly outdoor zone nearly half a kilometre long full of Pokemon figurines, and a town modelled on those in the games for shopping and rides. To access the woodland area, visitors must be able to climb 110 steps without assistance, the park’s website says. A record number of tourists entered Japan in 2025, despite a steep fall in Chinese visitors in December due to a row between the nations. Another big theme park, Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, said last month it is also planning Pokemon-themed attractions, without giving details. – AFP

Man charged with 596 child abuse offences

SYDNEY: Australian police charged a man with hundreds of child abuse offences yesterday after finding 23,000 sexually explicit images on his computer from children allegedly groomed online. Queensland Police Chief Superintendent Denzil Clark said detectives identified 459 victims within a cache of photos and videos that “meticulously” documented the 27-year-old’s alleged crimes. Victims are aged between seven and 15, and live in Australia and abroad, he said. “It will be alleged that the man actively targeted the victims on popular social media and gaming platforms, and the offending was (done) between 2018 and 2025. o Victims aged between seven and 15, and live in Australia and abroad: Police

authorities said yesterday they are treating as a terrorism incident an attempt to bomb a rally protesting the country’s National Day on Jan 26, the first such charge in the state of Western Australia. They arrested a 31-year-old man on accusations of hurling a homemade bomb into a crowd of several thousand people in the city of Perth. No one was injured because the bomb did not explode. Police and state leader Roger Cook said the man held white supremacist views and the attack was an attempt to target Aboriginal people, one of Australia’s two main indigenous groups. Australia Day, which commemorates Britain’s colonisation of the country in 1788, is a public holiday marked by picnics, barbecues and ceremonies for new citizens, but it has also attracted criticism from some, including the Indigenous community, with “Invasion Day” protest rallies nationwide. – AFP

“Police will further allege that the man created multiple fake online profiles of males and females, and he groomed, coerced and threatened young people into sending him sexually explicit material.” Clark said it was “extremely concerning and disturbing”. “We are seeing an increasing prevalence of children being groomed, coerced or threatened into taking and sending sexual images of themselves, often through popular apps, games and social media sites. The trauma that this causes a child is significant.” The man has been charged with 596 separate offences, including more than 200 counts of producing child abuse material and 87 counts of sexual activity with a child over the internet. Australia recently banned under-16s from a raft of the world’s most popular social media platforms, citing an alarming rise in adult predators finding young victims online. In a separate development, Australian

‘Taiwan Strait missions not about provocation’ TAIPEI: Naval missions by foreign countries in the Taiwan Strait are about asserting international law rather than offering provocation, France’s de facto ambassador in Taipei said yesterday, speaking of voyages that routinely infuriate China. (G7) nations for the current year. US warships traverse the strait every few months, enraging Beijing, and some US allies, such as France, Australia, Britain and Canada, have also made occasional transits. Beijing’s sovereignty claims, welcomes such transits as support for freedom of navigation. China’s military routinely operates in the waterway in what Taipei views as a pressure campaign. FESTIVE FRILLS ... Buddhist monks visiting a shop selling decorations ahead of the Lunar New Year, known in Vietnam as Tet, in Hanoi on Wednesday. – AFPPIC

France, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is viewed by Taipei as an important partner and fellow democracy. Three decades ago, it sold Mirage fighter jets and frigates to Taiwan, although the United States is the island’s most important international source of arms. “These assets are still used by the Taiwanese defence,“ said Paris, adding that French companies helped maintain them by providing necessary equipment. “This is the framework that we are committed to and this framework has not been questioned for years.” – Reuters

Paris said it has become routine for G7 statements to include language on maintaining the status quo across the strait and opposing use of force or coercion. “This is a clear message that we repeat all the time, and I think there is good choreography between a number of G7 partners to send this message,“ he added, pointing to past naval trips by Canada and the Netherlands, among others. The last publicly confirmed sailing by a French navy ship in the strait, a conduit for trade running into billions of dollars a year, was in 2024. The government of Taiwan, which rejects

In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there. “We are careful to send these naval assets into international waters without any provocation,“ said French Office in Taipei director Franck Paris. The naval missions aim to send a clear message that international law prevails in the waters and should remain so, added Paris, whose country is chairing the Group of Seven