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Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:
The US defence secretary’s visit to Japan
Beijing launches $72bn capital injections at China’s biggest banks
The earthquake rescue effort in Myanmar
Donald Trump’s defence secretary said the US had begun upgrading its military forces in Japan to establish a “war-fighting” headquarters, because the allies try to construct a more formidable deterrence against China.
Washington’s plan: Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the upgrade, the primary phase of a reorganisation of US forces in Japan announced under the Biden administration, would improve their ability to co-ordinate operations with Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and “keep the enemy guessing” by creating strategic dilemmas within the region.
Concerns concerning the US-Japan alliance: Donald Trump has questioned the validity of long-standing alliances, unsettling Nato allies and causing reverberations across in Asia. Japan, which considers itself Washington’s closest ally within the region, depends heavily on the US security umbrella. Trump earlier this month described the US-Japan treaty as “an interesting take care of Japan that we have now to guard them, but they don’t should protect us” — comments that raised fears amongst Japanese officials.
Hegseth, nevertheless, called Japan a “model ally” of the US at a joint press conference along with his Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani. The comments appeared aimed toward soothing concerns in Tokyo concerning the durability and reliability of the countries’ partnership under Trump’s presidency. “President Trump has also made it very clear . . . we’re going to place America first. But America First doesn’t mean America alone,” he said.
Read more concerning the US defence secretary’s visit to Japan.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
Japanese economy: A batch of knowledge is due, including Tokyo inflation figures and preliminary February retails sales and industrial production.
China-Russia relations: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visits Russia for talks on issues including the Ukraine war. (AFP)
France: Far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces a faces a possible ban of as much as five yr on running for office in a verdict expected today in her embezzlement trial. (Associated Press)
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Five more top stories
1. 4 of China’s biggest banks will raise a combined Rmb520bn ($72bn) through share sales to investors including the Ministry of Finance, as Beijing seeks to shore up its vast banking sector against pressing economic woes. The rare government-directed injections are a part of a series of official support measures which have since last September aimed to revive confidence on this planet’s second-largest economy.
2. International efforts to get aid into Myanmar intensified yesterday, days after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake. The country’s military government said that 1,700 people had been killed, a figure that is anticipated to rise. Responding to the earthquake is about to be an enormous challenge for Myanmar, which has endured a long time of conflict and repressive military rule. Read more concerning the rescue efforts.
3. Donald Trump said yesterday he was “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin for dragging his feet in talks over a ceasefire with Ukraine, because the US president threatened secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if no deal is agreed. Trump’s outburst at Moscow is a shift in tone for the US president, who for weeks blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for being reluctant to strike a deal.
4. Norway should drop a ban that’s stopping its sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, from investing in defence firms corresponding to Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Honeywell, the 2 essential opposition parties have said. Norway’s $1.8tn oil fund has been barred from holding stakes in most defence firms for the reason that early 2000s.
5. Greenland’s recent prime minister has insisted that Donald Trump won’t take control of the Arctic island, insisting the territory will “determine our own future”. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who became prime minister on Friday after the island held a general election this month, was responding to the US president’s latest outburst during which he once more refused to rule out military force to take Greenland.
News in-depth
The FT spoke with tourists to the US who’ve suffered hostile treatment by the hands of border guards since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “I still have nightmares [about the experience] and I’m not yet back to normal,” said one German visitor who was shackled and jailed for 16 days before being allowed to fly back to Germany.
We’re also reading . . .
The nice disentanglement: An extended rebalancing of investor portfolios is prone to be under way that may very well be painful for the US, writes Katie Martin.
Promoting on X: Big brands are allocating small amounts of their promoting budget to Elon Musk’s X, searching for to avoid being seen as boycotting the platform.
Young men in crisis: The actual problem is one which hand-wringing over “toxic masculinity” won’t solve, writes Camilla Cavendish.
Chart of the day
Indians have grow to be heavy investors in gold after a downturn in local equities, with a boom in exchange traded funds driving purchases because the commodity’s price hits record highs.
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Take a break from the news . . .
The pandemic accelerated an increase in the usage of messaging apps corresponding to WhatsApp between colleagues — and likewise bred recent levels of informality at work, Pilita Clark argues. The Trump administration’s recent Signalgate scandal underscore the results of the WhatsAppification of labor.
