Pinned Tweet
As defence industry cooperation moves to the centre of the UK-Japan quasi alliance, is it time to deepen our intelligence relationship? anglojapanalliance.com/2022/…
INTERVIEW/ U.K. ambassador returns to Japan amid global uncertainty | The Asahi Shimbun Asia & Japan Watch asahi.com/ajw/articles/16969…
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
Isn’t it ironic how the PRC is committed to recreating the Qing Empire?
IISS - China muddies the waters east of Taiwan iiss.org/online-analysis/onl…
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
This line about the Chinese political system being highly meritocratic keeps popping up. Weird how all the Chinese women lack merit to get to the politburo, but good for the CCP princelings who have so much of it.
I want to invite people into a thought experiment, one that I suspect many will find insane.
The thought experiment: China is more democratic than the US.
Numerous *Western* surveys have now found that the Chinese government enjoys more public support than the US government. On the question of legitimacy, China fares better.
China also does better at securing basic economic freedoms and meeting the material needs of its poor. What's the point of the ballot box when politics becomes performative and politicians aren't held accountable when they fail to deliver universal housing, healthcare, or education?
I suspect a big part of the explanation for the Chinese government's commitment to public service is that top-level politicians in China need a proven track record in the domain of public service delivery. The Chinese political system is highly meritocratic, unlike the American one. Becoming a top-level politician in the CPC requires decades of bureaucratic progression.
Of course, China isn't more democratic than the US on every measure. The US has a free press and open competition for political power, although both of these are highly influenced by corporate interests.
While I am not convinced there's a clear answer to this thought experiment, dismissing China as a tyrannical dictatorship is ignorant. There are examples of failed authoritarian states around the world (I've lived in one), and China is not one of them.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
China hasn't been attacked for several decades, so why is it building a huge military and nuclear arsenal?
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
The best parallel to draw connecting Ukraine with Taiwan is the importance of threat assessment and deterrence. Ukraine was not able to deter Russia in 2014 and in 2022 its leadership reportedly didn’t accept the US/UK intelligence assessment that a full invasion was coming.
🇹🇼 🇺🇸 | Taiwanese journalist @AngelicaOung doesn't want Taiwan to become the next Ukraine, and she's tired of Americans who do.
“That's objectively a crazy thing to say."
The Specter met Oung in Taipei. Read the full interview now.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
I guess if you’re an adherent to “realist” IR theory but you also serve President Trump, your realism has to be pretty ’flexible’.
From our point of view, a collective middle powers strategy is based on a faulty understanding of international relations. We are flexible realists. So, we view the international scene through the prism of interest, geography, economics, military power, etc. “Middle powers” don’t have a coherent basis for alignment. 2/
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
"If you support a clear threat to us, as Russia is, then you are also challenging the security of Europe.” - @elinavaltonen
At a press conference, Finnish Foreign Minister @elinavaltonen shared the main points of the conversation with Wang Yi, who was visiting Finland today:
📌Russia is the most significant threat to Europe
📌China's support for Russia does not contribute to ending the war.
📌Support for Russia is also a threat to Europe. "If you support a clear threat to us, as Russia is, then you are also challenging the security of Europe.”
📌 China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, so it matters if it even partially assists a party waging a war of aggression. 📌Deepening relationship between China and Russia is regrettable.
📌 The human rights situation in China is deteriorating. The shrinking space for civil society in China and the treatment of minorities are restricting people's freedoms. Human dignity is indivisible and Finland consistently defends human rights.
📌 There are challenges associated with trade relations. Finland and the EU expect concrete steps from China regarding market distortion measures.
areena.yle.fi/1-78367020?utm…
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
One feels for Prof FENG Zhongping #CASS tasked to make the case that 🇪🇺 can rely on 🇨🇳not to politicise trade when his country is blocking flows of dual-use items to 🇯🇵 (based on 'militarisation' and a made-up nuclear program) while supplying 🇷🇺's invasion of a European country.
At the 2nd EU-China Conference hosted by the EU Delegation, Prof. FENG Zhongping of #CASS noted: Europe learned hard lessons from past dependencies - on 🇷🇺 oil and 🇺🇸 security and is applying similar logic to 🇨🇳. “China is a different power, a different country.”
#EUChina2026
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
Impressed 🇬🇧Parliamentary Committee drawing lessons on resilience made time for the representative of 🇹🇼 in UK. Lots to be gained from closer collaboration on evolving and shared security threats.
Bravo @TanDhesi @Taiwan_in_UK
In a more volatile world, #Taiwan's Whole-of-Society Defence Resilience Committee exemplifies scale of ambition the #UK needs in the face of rising #security #threats.
As I said in Parliament’s Joint Committee on the #NationalSecurity Strategy, vital we learn from its successes.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
Later this year, ASEAN and Japan will do up something that amounts to a rebuff at Beijing. As to what exactly that something is, I shall be obliged to keep it on the ice until official announcement transpires.
Reality check: Japan’s remilitarization is a GRAY RHINO charging towards peace and order in the Asia Pacific.
The prosperity enjoyed by Asia-Pacific countries rests on the peaceful foundation laid down by the post-WWII international order. But Japan’s right-wing forces are gearing up with an actual roadmap to tear apart that order and foundation, and the action has already begun.
Many international experts, scholars and media reports have pointed to Japan’s abandonment of pacifism and most dangerous shift in military policy since WWII, which threatens peace and stability in the region and beyond.
History shall not be forgotten. Reality shall not go unchecked.
Memories of the devastation of Japanese militarism are not far gone yet. All Asia-Pacific countries need to stay clear-eyed and jointly reject Japanese neo-militarism to safeguard the order of peace on which all countries rely to live and thrive.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
‘’A country that has operated without a foreign intelligence service, without an anti-espionage law and with a chronically siloed intelligence community … is not remilitarizing when it takes modest steps to remedy those deficiencies.”
japantimes.co.jp/commentary/…
Isn’t it ironic how the PRC is committed to recreating the Qing Empire?
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
🇧🇳 exports petroleum products and fertiliser to 🇦🇺 . 🇦🇺 exports food and LNG to 🇸🇬 . 🇸🇬 exports refined products to 🇦🇺.
It’s remarkable how many people still don’t understand how dependent on maritime communications this country is. But with every crisis it’s becoming clearer.
The fertiliser from Brunei helps grow the food we buy, and drive our economy.
That's why I'm here, to help secure what our farmers need to keep Australia moving.
While the war in the Middle East continues to impact supply in Australia, it is more important than ever that we work closely with our neighbours.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
3 weeks in, and the US’s key Asian ally is negotiating with Washington’s enemy to secure safe transit of SoH because the US Navy can’t ensure passage for Japan’s merchant ships trapped in the Gulf. Tokyo has always maintained relations with Tehran, but still extraordinary.
Like India, Japan negotiating passage directly with Tehran. japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/0…
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
I joined @CNN to discuss what it would take to get commercial shipping flowing more confidently through the Strait of Hormuz.
It will need to be phased: first reduce Iran’s ability to threaten shipping by degrading C2, radar & strike systems. Then reassure industry through patrols, escorts, information-sharing & strategic communications — ideally as a coalition effort.
Full segment available here edition.cnn.com/2026/03/20/w…
@DefenceUwa @LowyInstitute @NSC_ANU
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
Russia's main TV channel is airing songs about how great life is without the internet. Getting even closer to North Korea.
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
🧵 Naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz are often discussed as a solution to tanker attacks — but in practice they are difficult to execute at scale. A short thread 1/
EuroAsiaSecurityForum retweeted
@globaltimesnews CCP media now classifies how sovereign states deploy their resources for defence within their own borders as ‘military expansion’.
Beijing sounds more like Moscow every day.
A comparison of satellite images taken in May 2024 and September 2025 shows that construction of Japan’s military base on Mageshima Island has accelerated significantly. Japanese government has been accelerating its military expansion, particularly by strengthening deployments across the southwestern islands.