BEIJING: A ruling Chinese Communist Party newspaper on Monday denounced the passage of a pair of US Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait as a “psychological game,” as the two sides square off over trade and relations with self-governing Taiwan.
The Global Times said in an editorial that the US was adding to tensions by sailing the Japan-based guided missile destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold through the 160-kilometer (100-mile)-wide strait that divides Taiwan from mainland China.
Though such missions are not uncommon, both Taiwan and the US made unusual public confirmations of the ships’ passage over the weekend.
Washington is “sending political signals by sending warships through the Taiwan Strait,” said the editorial, headline “US psychological game in Taiwan Strait.”
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be conquered by force if necessary, has criticized recent US moves to strengthen relations with the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Those include the opening of a new office complex for the American Institute in Taiwan, which operates as Washington’s de facto embassy on the island in the absence of formal diplomatic ties that were cut when the US switched recognition to China in 1949.
The US Congress recently passed a law encouraging higher-level government contacts between the sides and closer cooperation between their militaries is also being emphasized.
Such developments come amid rising frictions over what the US considers unfair trading practices by China, the world’s second-largest economy.
The administration of President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tax on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports on Friday. China is retaliating with taxes on an equal amount of US products, including soybeans, electric cars and pork.
A former Japanese colony, Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949 and China cut off relations with Tsai’s government after her 2016 inauguration because she refuses to recognize the island as a part of China.
Despite the lack of diplomatic relations, the US remains Taiwan’s chief international ally and American law requires the government to respond to threats to the island.
China paper denounces US Navy ships’ Taiwan Strait passage
China paper denounces US Navy ships’ Taiwan Strait passage
South Korea will boost medical school admissions to tackle physician shortage
- Jeong said all of the additional students will be trained through regional physician programs
SEOUL: South Korea plans to increase medical school admissions by more than 3,340 students from 2027 to 2031 to address concerns about physician shortages in one of the fastest-aging countries in the world, the government said Tuesday.
The decision was announced months after officials defused a prolonged doctors’ strike by backing away from a more ambitious increase pursued by Seoul’s former conservative government. Even the scaled-down plan drew criticism from the country’s doctors’ lobby, which said the move was “devoid of rational judgment.”
Kwak Soon-hun, a senior Health Ministry official, said that the president of the Korean Medical Association attended the healthcare policy meeting but left early to boycott the vote confirming the size of the admission increases.
The KMA president, Kim Taek-woo, later said the increases would overwhelm medical schools when combined with students returning from strikes or mandatory military service, and warned that the government would be “fully responsible for all confusion that emerges in the medical sector going forward.” The group didn’t immediately signal plans for further walkouts.
Health Minister Jeong Eun Kyeong said the annual medical school admissions cap will increase from the current 3,058 to 3,548 in 2027, with further hikes planned in subsequent years to reach 3,871 by 2031. This represents an average increase of 668 students per year over the five-year period, far smaller than the 2,000-per-year hike initially proposed by the government of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, which sparked the months long strike by thousands of doctors.
Jeong said all of the additional students will be trained through regional physician programs, which aim to increase the number of doctors in small towns and rural areas that have been hit hardest by demographic pressures. The specific admissions quota for each medical school will be finalized in April.
