Top Asian News 4:42 a.m. GMT

China’s foreign minister criticizes US tariffs and accuses the country of ‘meeting good with evil’

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will continue to retaliate to the United States’ “arbitrary tariffs” and accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” in a press conference Friday on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliamentary session. Wang said China’s efforts to help the U.S. contain its fentanyl crisis have been met with punitive tariffs, which are straining the ties between the countries. “No country should fantasize that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time,” Wang said. “Such two-faced acts are not good for the stability of bilateral relations or for building mutual trust.” The two countries have been reengaging in tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs since U.S.

Top Hong Kong court overturns convictions of 3 former organizers of Tiananmen vigils

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s top court on Thursday overturned the convictions of three former organizers of an annual vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown over their refusal to provide information to police, marking a rare victory for the city’s pro-democracy activists. Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong — core members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China — were convicted in 2023 during Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement. They received a sentence of 4 1/2 months each and have already served their terms. The alliance was long known for organizing candlelight vigils in the city on the anniversary of the Chinese military’s crushing of pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.

A boy with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane in Australia but was tackled by a former boxer

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 17-year-old boy with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane at an Australian airport before being restrained by a pilot and two passengers, police said Friday. The boy was disarmed and detained before police arrived on the scene Thursday at Avalon Airport in Victoria state. Barry Clark, a passenger who tackled the suspect, said the boy had posed as a maintenance worker and became agitated when questioned by a flight attendant at the plane’s entrance. “I looked up and then within a second I saw the barrel of a shotgun and I thought to myself that ain’t a tool that should be on a plane,” Clark told Network 10 television.

South Korea and the US will begin annual military drills next week

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and U.S. troops will begin their large annual joint military drills next week to enhance readiness against North Korean threats, the allies announced Thursday, days after North Korea threatened high-profile provocations against what it called escalating U.S.-led aggression. However, the announcement was overshadowed by the news of two South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropping eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint live-fire exercise with the U.S. military earlier Thursday. Eight people were injured and South Korea’s military halted all live-fire drills across the country. The allies have already begun joint field training for the March 10-20 command post exercise dubbed Freedom Shield exercise, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

In tense relations with India, Pakistani TV dramas break down barriers that diplomacy often cannot

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Two Pakistani women sit together on a couch, rehearsing their lines while a director scrutinizes them. Waiting off camera for his scene is the male lead, an actor blessed with “Bachelor” hair and fine bone structure. Also out of sight: the Islamabad homeowners, who are holed up in a separate room and whose furniture and knick-knacks will be seen by millions of viewers — many from the society that has been their country’s neighbor and uneasy sparring partner for much of the past century. This is the set of the Pakistani drama “Adhi Bewafai,” or “Half Infidelity” — one of what some in other nations would call “soap operas.” But these dramas, it turns out, are not just for Pakistanis.

Taiwan says chipmaker’s move to invest $100 billion in the US wasn’t because of US pressure

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president and top chipmaker TSMC held a joint news conference Thursday to defend the company’s decision to invest $100 billion in the U.S., saying it stemmed from customer demand and not pressure from the Trump administration. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker, said earlier this week it would invest $100 billion in three more chip manufacturing plants, along with two packaging facilities in Arizona. The decision sparked concerns that Taiwan would gain little in return for moving some of its most advanced manufacturing processes to the U.S. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te denied that TSMC’s investment decision was due to political pressure by the United States.

New Senate bill seeks to tackle the flow of fentanyl into the US from China and Mexico

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare bipartisan move, two senators have introduced legislation in the latest attempt to fight the flow of fentanyl and its precursors into the United States from China, Mexico and through other borders — one reason that President Donald Trump has given for his new tariffs. In imposing taxes, or tariffs, on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, Trump says those countries have failed to stem the trafficking of fentanyl into the U.S., among other issues. The governments in those nations all say they have cooperated on the matter, and Trump on Thursday postponed tariffs for a month on most goods from Mexico and some imports from Canada.

Schools are closed and public transport has stopped as rare cyclone approaches Australian coast

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Early wind and rain from a rare tropical cyclone began lashing part of eastern Australia on Thursday as schools were closed, public transport was stopped and desperate residents got around shortages of sandbags by buying potting mix. Tropical Cyclone Alfred is forecast to cross the Queensland state coast somewhere between the Sunshine Coast region and the city of Gold Coast to the south early Saturday, Bureau of Meteorology manager Matt Collopy said. Between the two tourist strips is the state capital Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city which will host the 2032 Olympic Games. “The wind impacts, we’re already seeing those start to develop on the exposed locations along our coast with gusts reaching 80-to-90 kph (50-to-56 mph).

Japan’s top court upholds ex-TEPCO leaders’ acquittal on negligence over Fukushima nuclear crisis

Japan’s top court has found two former company executives not guilty of negligence over the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster and the subsequent deaths of dozens of elderly residents during their forced evacuation. The Supreme Court, upholding earlier lower court decisions that had acquitted the three top officials of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, said that a tsunami of the size that hit the plant was unforeseeable and the executives could not be held accountable for negligence. The ruling rejected an appeal by the prosecution seeking their criminal responsibility, and the acquittal of two executives - Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro - is now final.

An Okinawan bone digger searches for remains from one of the fiercest battles of World War II

ITOMAN, Japan (AP) — Takamatsu Gushiken turns on a headtorch and enters a cave buried in Okinawa’s jungle. He gently runs his fingers through the gravel until two pieces of bone emerge. These are from the skulls, he says, of an infant and possibly an adult. He carefully places them in a ceramic rice bowl and takes a moment to imagine people dying 80 years ago as they hid in this cave during one of the fiercest battles of World War II. His hope is that the dead can be reunited with their families. The remains of some 1,400 people found on Okinawa sit in storage for possible identification with DNA testing.