HONG KONG — The Chinese military conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan on Tuesday in what it said was a “stern warning” to pro-independence forces on the Beijing-claimed island, as it called Taiwan’s president a “parasite.” The Taiwanese government condemned the exercises, in which Chinese army, navy, air and rocket forces closed in on waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, according to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). No live fire has been reported. Tensions have been heightened since last month, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te described China as a “foreign hostile force” and proposed 17 measures to counter threats from Beijing, which has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its unification goal. Beijing has rebuffed offers of talks from Lai, who says only the island democracy’s 23 million people can decide their future. The Chinese drills were accompanied by the release of multiple propaganda images and videos. One cartoon video titled “Shell” depicts Lai, whom Beijing calls a “separatist” and “troublemaker,” as a “parasite” held by a pair of chopsticks over a Taiwan on fire. “Parasite poisoning Taiwan Island. Parasite hollowing island out. Parasite courting ultimate destruction,” text in the video reads. A poster titled “Closing In” shows Chinese ships and aircraft surrounding Taiwan, while a video called “Subdue Demons and Vanquish Evils” features the monkey king from the Chinese epic “Journey to the West.” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office called the military drills a “resolute punishment for the reckless provocations” of the Lai administration. “Pursuing ‘Taiwan independence’ means pushing the people of Taiwan into a dangerous situation of war,” spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “We will not allow any person or force to separate Taiwan from China.” A spokesperson for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command called the exercises a “legitimate and necessary” action to safeguard China’s sovereignty. “These drills mainly focus on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, assault on maritime and ground targets, and blockade on key areas and sea lanes,” the spokesperson, Shi Yi, said in a statement Tuesday. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday local time (3:30 a.m. Tuesday ET), it had detected 71 Chinese military aircraft, 13 warships and four coast guard vessels around the island. Thirty-six of the aircraft crossed the median line that until recent years had served as an unofficial buffer in the Taiwan Strait. “We strongly condemn the PRC’s irrational provocations,” the ministry said in an earlier statement Tuesday, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China. “We firmly oppose PLA’s actions that undermine regional peace.” Taiwan has activated aircraft, navy ships and land-based missile systems in response to the Chinese drills, the ministry said, adding that it has been tracking China’s first domestically built Shandong aircraft carrier since Saturday. The United States, which has no official relations with Taiwan but is the island’s most important international backer, said later Tuesday that China’s military activities and rhetoric “only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s security and the world’s prosperity at risk.” “In the face of China’s intimidation tactics and destabilizing behavior, the United States’ enduring commitment to our allies and partners, including Taiwan, continues,” the State Department said in a statement. The drills on Tuesday were higher-profile than the three China has held around Taiwan since President Donald Trump was elected in November. They also did not carry the same “Joint Sword” code name as exercises of similar scale last October and May, which Zhang Chi, a professor at the PLA’s National Defense University in Beijing, told state-run broadcaster CCTV indicates that these exercises have become a “new normal” for the Chinese military. Beijing “very obviously” deployed more troops than in earlier joint air and maritime combat-readiness patrols, said Ying-Yu Lin, assistant professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei City. The exercises were intended to “test the U.S. bottom line” on Taiwan before a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lin told NBC News in a phone interview Tuesday. The drills took place two days after Pete Hegseth concluded his first trip to Asia as defense secretary. During his visit to U.S. allies the Philippines and Japan, Hegseth criticized China’s growing aggression in the region and called Japan an “indispensable partner” in deterring it. Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Tuesday that Beijing was an “obvious troublemaker” disrupting peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and that the “parasite” rhetoric fully demonstrated Beijing’s provocation. He told reporters the Chinese military should focus on tackling internal corruption rather than holding drills in the region. Last year, Beijing fired two former defense ministers amid an anti-corruption campaign in its military. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned the Chinese drills, urging Beijing to “immediately cease irrational provocative actions.” China’s “militaristic provocations not only escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait but also severely undermine regional peace and stability and threaten global security,” it said in a statement Tuesday. Though Taiwanese authorities view Beijing as a serious threat, most people on the island believe China is “unlikely or very unlikely” to invade in the next five years, according to a poll released last year by Taiwan’s top military think tank.

TOKYO — A climber was rescued twice in one week from Japan’s Mount Fuji after he went back to search for his lost phone, police said Monday. On Sunday, rescuers carried the climber on a stretcher from a station on the Fujinomiya trail, which sits about 10,170 feet high, the Japanese news outlet Nippon TV cited the local police as saying. The man appeared to suffer from altitude sickness but was not in life-threatening condition. Five days earlier, on April 22, the same climber called the police and was airlifted from the peak of Mount Fuji after he lost his crampons — spiky metal frames that are attached to shoes to make it easier to walk on ice and snow — and fell sick with nausea. He then returned to the peak Saturday in a bid to retrieve his cellphone, among other personal belongings he left behind during the first hike, according to the police. The man, who has not been publicly identified, is a 27-year-old university student and Chinese national who lives in Tokyo, police said. Police in Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture were alerted that he had returned Saturday when another climber reported spotting the student on the trail, “lying on the ground and shaking with abrasions.” The next day, rescuers carried the injured man down about 2,600 feet on a stretcher before handing him to an emergency team. It was not clear whether he had successfully retrieved the phone. The rescued student was scaling Mount Fuji outside of its official climbing season, which is scheduled to start in early July and end in early September. There is no penalty for off-season hiking or the need for rescue. Police in Shizuoka and Yamanashi, the two prefectures that the mountain straddles, were unable to provide additional details when reached for comment Tuesday, which was a national holiday in Japan. Mount Fuji, a national symbol of Japan, is 12,300 feet above sea level. It is a pilgrimage destination and UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts hikers from all over the world. Hikers are required to make prior reservations and pay a mandatory fee of 4,000 yen ($36) to climb Mount Fuji, according to its official website. The charge was introduced in July 2024 to limit tourist numbers to 4,000 a day after growing complaints of litter, pollution and dangerously crowded trails. Climbers are advised to train in advance before going up Mount Fuji, whose shortest trail takes five hours to ascend and three hours to descend. Local police said last year that six climbers had died on Mount Fuji in July 2024 alone, exceeding the total number of fatalities in 2023, according to the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo and Peter Guo reported from Hong Kong.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Chinese authorities say 22 people have been killed and 3 injured in a fire at a restaurant in the northern city of Liaoyang. No word was given on the cause of the fire, which broke out shortly after noon, but images from the scene showed huge flames spurting from the windows and doors of the two- or three-story building. Industrial accidents occur frequently in China, usually due to staff ignoring safety features due to a lack of training or pressure from their superiors. Poorly maintained infrastructure, illegally stored chemicals and a lack of fire exits and fire retardant, often abetted by corruption, are often factors in such disasters. If the fire began in the kitchen, it may be related to the traditional use of large open fires over which iron woks are used to braise dishes. Diners across China also enjoy a dish known simply as “hot pot” in which meat and vegetables are stewed over open flames. Liaoyang, in Liaoning province, is part of China’s rust belt, a former industrial powerhouse that has fallen on hard times with considerable population outflow.

SEOUL, South Korea — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened Tuesday to launch high-profile provocations in response to the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier in South Korea and other U.S. military activities, which she slammed as “confrontation hysteria of the U.S. and its stooges.” The warning by Kim Yo Jong implies that North Korea will most likely ramp up weapons testing activities and maintain its confrontational posture against the U.S., though President Donald Trump has said he would reach out to Kim Jong Un to revive diplomacy. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong accused the U.S. of clearly showing “its most hostile and confrontational will” to North Korea with the deployments of the USS Carl Vinson and other powerful U.S. military assets and U.S.-South Korean military drills this year. “The DPRK is also planning to carefully examine the option for increasing the actions threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level to cope with the fact that the deployment of U.S. strategic assets in the Korean Peninsula has become a vicious habit and adversely affects the security of the DPRK,” she said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Her statement suggests North Korea may test-launch powerful missiles designed to strike the mainland U.S. or American military bases in the region, observers say. South Korea’s Defense Ministry warned later that it was ready to repel any provocations by North Korea based on a solid military alliance with the U.S. A ministry statement called Kim Yo Jong’s warning “sophistry” meant to justify her country’s nuclear development and future provocations.On Sunday, the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group arrived in South Korea, the latest temporary deployment of a U.S. strategic asset aimed at displaying the firmness of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance in the face of North Korean threats and strengthening interoperability of the allies’ combined assets. The U.S. carrier’s arrival came four days after North Korea conducted cruise missile tests, its fourth missile launch event this year. North Korea views arrivals of such powerful U.S. military assets in South Korea as major security threats and often responds with missile tests. North Korea has not directly responded to Trump’s overture, but alleged U.S.-led hostilities against North Korea have intensified since the start of Trump’s second term in January. Experts say Kim Jong Un is not likely to embrace Trump’s outreach anytime soon as he is now focusing on his support of Russia’s war against Ukraine with supply of weapons and troops. They say Kim could consider returning to diplomacy with Trump when he thinks he cannot maintain his country’s current booming cooperation with Russia. Kim and Trump met three times from 2018 to 2019 during Trump’s first term to discuss the future of North Korea’s nuclear program. Their high-stakes diplomacy eventually collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led economic sanctions on North Korea.

It already has the world’s largest navy, but new satellite imagery shows that China is developing a huge nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that would rival the biggest vessel in the American fleet, five analysts told NBC News after studying new satellite imagery. The images of China’s Dalian shipbuilding facility in northeast China suggest that the new ship will allow fighter jets to be launched from four parts of the flight deck, leading analysts to conclude that the images suggest a new ship design — unlike anything now in the Chinese fleet. The analysts made the assessment after examining images provided to NBC News by Maxar Technologies, a defense contractor headquartered in Colorado used by the U.S. government. China’s three current aircraft carriers have the capacity to launch jets from only three parts on the front and the waist, or center, on the deck. Its latest supercarrier, the recently launched Fujian, a Type 003, has three electromagnetic catapult launching systems to propel fighter jets, said Michael Duitsman, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a California-based nongovernment organization devoted to curbing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The United States has 11 supercarriers that can launch from four places. “We think this is them testing equipment and layouts for the upcoming Type 04 carrier,” Duitsman said in a video call this week. The general consensus, he said, is" that the new carrier will have four catapults,” which would allow more planes to take off and match U.S. carriers like the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier. To accommodate four catapults, the ship will need to be larger than the Fujian, matching American tonnage and powered by a nuclear reactor. The satellite images of China’s Dalian shipbuilding facility in northeast China show an engineering prototype of a module with two tracks, or trenches. These tracks “obviously are related to catapults,” said H.I Sutton, an independent naval analyst based in the U.K. “But this is not the actual carrier under construction. Instead what it suggests is that the yard is gearing up to produce carriers,” he said in a telephone interview last week. China has not acknowledged it is developing a new supercarrier, and Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the embassy in Washington, had no comment when asked about the new design. He said that the country’s national defense policy is “purely defensive in nature.” The United States has nonetheless made no secret that it sees China as a priority. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told NATO leaders this month that they should take up more of the security burden in Europe to free up American firepower. He said the United States faced a “peer competitor in the communist Chinese, with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core national interests in the Indo-Pacific.” He added that the United States was “prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific.”

President Donald Trump wants to bring back American manufacturing in ways that would reshape the United States economy to look more like China’s. The campaign, which has led to a rapidly escalating trade war with China, has given ample social media fodder to Chinese and American observers alike. Announcing a series of sweeping tariffs in a move dubbed “Liberation Day,” Trump said last week that it will lead factories to move production back to American shores, boosting the U.S. economy after “foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream.” In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump announced that he is raising tariffs on goods imported from China to 125%, up from the 104% that took effect the same day, due to “the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.” Higher targeted tariffs on other countries have been paused for 90 days, although the 10% baseline tariff will remain in place for all countries. Meme-makers and Chinese government officials have in recent days begun pointing out the irony of Trump’s tariff-driven manufacturing pivot through AI-generated satire and political cartoons that have percolated online, with many American users boosting the jokes. One video poking fun at the Trump administration’s attempted pivot to American manufacturing has accumulated millions of views on X since a user posted it on TikTok earlier this week. The clip, seemingly generated with artificial intelligence, showed workers sewing garments and assembling mobile devices in a factory, followed by a screen touting: “Make America Great Again.” Official Chinese accounts have also gotten in on the fun. Last weekend, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, posted a meme appearing to mock Trump for imposing tariffs on several largely barren Antarctic islands inhabited by penguins rather than people. Some have been subtler with their critiques. On Monday, the Chinese Embassy reposted a clip of a 1987 speech by President Ronald Reagan, whose economic agenda hugely influenced mainstream Republican economics today. In it, Reagan staunchly defends free trade.“When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing a patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works. But only for a short time,” Reagan says in the clip, before launching into a list of consequences. Talk of tariffs dominated the trending searches on Weibo, one of the most popular social media platforms in China, on Wednesday. For hours, the top hashtag on the platform translated to: “The United States begs for eggs while fighting a trade war.” While the online memes depict American factory workers toiling away at menial tasks, the Trump administration says that such jobs would be automated in revived U.S. factories and that employees would be doing higher-level work. “Our high school-educated Americans — the core to our work force — is going to have the greatest resurgence of jobs in the history of America to work on these high-tech factories, which are all coming to America,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on the CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” Trump’s calls to revive domestic manufacturing come as China has pushed to make its economy look more like that of the United States. China, which is trying to reduce its economic reliance on exports, has been struggling to encourage domestic consumption, expanding subsidies for microwaves, rice cookers, smartphones and other goods. At least in the short term, both the U.S. and the Chinese goals are “pipe dreams,” said Ian Johnson, formerly a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “China has been trying for decades to promote consumption or to get people to consume more, but for a variety of reasons Chinese people aren’t willing to do that,” Johnson said in a phone interview Tuesday, citing the lack of social safety net that drives high levels of personal savings. “The government hasn’t changed structural issues that hold back consumption,” Johnson said. “So until they do that, that’s not going to work.” On the U.S. side, Johnson said, “it’s difficult because the government is trying to turn back the clock and I don’t think that’s fully possible, no matter how high the tariffs are.” “You’re never going to bring back, for example, shoe manufacturing or things like that or textile manufacturing to the United States, because it’s still going to be too expensive, even if you put 100% tariffs,” he said.

Chinese bargain retailer Temu changed its business model in the U.S. as the Trump administration’s new rules on low-value shipments took effect Friday. In recent days, Temu has abruptly shifted its website and app to only display listings for products shipped from U.S.-based warehouses. Items shipped directly from China, which previously blanketed the site, are now labeled as out of stock. Temu made a name for itself in the U.S. as a destination for ultra-discounted items shipped direct from China, such as $5 sneakers and $1.50 garlic presses. It’s been able to keep prices low because of the so-called de minimis rule, which has allowed items worth $800 or less to enter the country duty-free since 2016. The loophole expired Friday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. Trump briefly suspended the de minimis rule in February before reinstating the provision days later as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a mountain of low-value packages. The end of de minimis, as well as Trump’s new 145% tariffs on China, has forced Temu to raise prices, suspend its aggressive online advertising push and now alter the selection of goods available to American shoppers to circumvent higher levies. A Temu spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that all sales in the U.S. are now handled by local sellers and said they are fulfilled “from within the country.” Temu said pricing for U.S. shoppers “remains unchanged.” “Temu has been actively recruiting U.S. sellers to join the platform,” the spokesperson said. “The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses.” Before the change, shoppers who attempted to purchase Temu products shipped from China were confronted with “import charges” of between 130% and 150%. The fees often cost more than the individual item and more than doubled the price of many orders. Temu advertises that local products have “no import charges” and “no extra charges upon delivery.” The company, which is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has gradually built up its inventory in the U.S. over the past year in anticipation of escalating trade tensions and the removal of de minimis. Shein, which has also benefited from the loophole, moved to raise prices last week. The fast-fashion retailer added a banner at checkout that says, “Tariffs are included in the price you pay. You’ll never have to pay extra at delivery.” Many third-party sellers on Amazon rely on Chinese manufacturers to source or assemble their products. The company’s Temu competitor, called Amazon Haul, has relied on de minimis to ship products priced at $20 or less directly from China to the U.S. Amazon said Tuesday following a dustup with the White House that had it considered showing tariff-related costs on Haul products ahead of the de minimis cutoff but that it has since scrapped those plans. Prior to Trump’s second term in office, the Biden administration had also looked to curtail the provision. Critics of the de minimis provision argue that it harms American businesses and that it facilitates shipments of fentanyl and other illicit substances because, they say, the packages are less likely to be inspected by customs agents.

President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to dramatically expand tariffs are now a reality. Tariffs of 25% on goods from Mexico and Canada went into effect Tuesday morning, alongside an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods. It’s a move that affects trillions of dollars in trade and will reshape prices for everything from cars to medication — while straining relationships with key U.S. trading partners. Imported goods are a key driver of the American economy, totaling $2.9 trillion in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — with China, Canada and Mexico accounting for more than 40% of that volume. It’s these top trading partners that Trump has frequently criticized. The U.S. has a trade deficit, meaning it imports more goods than it exports. Tariffs could help close that gap by raising the prices of foreign goods and encouraging Americans to purchase domestic alternatives. In some cases, even the threat of tariffs might accomplish some of that by incentivizing manufacturers to move operations elsewhere. However, those operations won’t necessarily be relocated to the United States.China was long the biggest exporter of goods to America. But its export total began to fall after Trump levied tariffs on the country during his first term, when companies began moving manufacturing from China to Mexico. As a result, Mexico surpassed it for total exports in 2023. Tariffs often lead to higher costs for consumers, as affected companies pass their new costs along. One economic study concluded that the costs of Trump’s 2018 trade war were “passed on entirely to U.S. importers and consumers.” A 2019 report from the Federal Reserve concluded the 2018 tariffs led to U.S. job losses and higher consumer prices.Among all categories of goods, the most imported in the U.S. are machinery-related products, electronics and automotive products. Canada, China and Mexico account for a meaningful share of these imports, which means consumers could soon see prices ratchet up on everything from new cars to smartphones to bicycles. While tariffs will increase the price of consumer goods, Trump has hinted at reducing or eliminating the personal income tax with the new tariff revenue.If that’s the case, it could ease consumer pain in the face of sky-high mortgages and rising prices on essentials including eggs and milk. However, income taxes make up most of the trillions in revenue the government collected last year.

LONDON — If President Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, he should hold off negotiating a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, Britain’s former top spy told NBC News on Thursday. Richard Dearlove, the ex-head of British intelligence agency MI6, said that rushing a truce — and giving too many concessions to the Kremlin — could encourage President Vladimir Putin to launch other hostile forays into Europe. The Russians badly need a ceasefire, said Dearlove, citing waning Kremlin cash reserves and the falling price of crude oil, which Moscow exports to fund its war machine. “Ukraine is pretty close to a tipping point,” he said in a wide-ranging interview. “But the worry at the moment is that Trump will do a premature deal with the Russians” and make too many concessions. The “highly undesirable” consequences would be to “embolden the Russians, over time, to be more aggressive and assertive in Europe,” said Dearlove over a coffee at one of London’s historic private members clubs. His remarks come as Ukraine’s military chief said Russia had launched a new offensive in the Eastern European country. While often less critical of Trump’s unorthodox approach than many other foreign policy experts, Dearlove said he finds Trump’s general “lack of grace” and “lack of decent behavior” to be “very disconcerting” — specifically his Oval Office bust-up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. “My general view of Americans is they’re gracious and they behave very respectfully,” said a gently amused Dearlove, 80, an Olympic rower’s son who spent a year at Connecticut’s preparatory Kent School before gaining his degree back in Britain at the University of Cambridge. “It’s extraordinary the way that Trump has blown up all of that.” The jovial, outspoken grandee of the British foreign policy establishment joined MI6 in 1966 and served as its chief — code-named “C” — between 1999 and 2004. He now co-hosts the “One Decision” podcast, covering global news, alongside former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He says he “strongly supports” the American president’s campaign to pressure European allies to spend more on defense, decrying the imbalance of Europe enjoying a relatively generous health care and benefits system while letting the U.S. foot the bill for Western defense. “Why should American taxpayers pay for indulgent social security programs in countries like Germany, France and Italy?” he said. He dismisses “Signalgate” — in which Trump’s team discussed bombing Yemen on the messaging app Signal — as a “stupid” and “silly mistake” that showed “a degree of amateurism.” And he said it wouldn’t have a long-term impact on Western intelligence sharing. Reached for comment on Dearlove’s remarks, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said, “President Trump is a master negotiator who has done more to bring about world peace during his tenure than any president in modern history.” “The President’s Peace Through Strength agenda has delivered historic achievements across the globe and restored American dominance on the world stage,” Fields added. “The ‘experts’ have been wrong for decades, and doing the same thing while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.” The ex-MI6 head says his biggest short-term worry revolves around Trump’s approach to Ukraine, which has involved parallel talks with both Kyiv and Moscow and has been lambasted by Trump’s critics in the West as being too favorable to the latter. “If you want to get the Nobel Peace Prize, don’t do a premature deal with Ukraine — wait,” Dearlove said. (According to former aides, the president still covets the landmark award won by four of his predecessors, and for which Trump has been nominated at least twice before.) Dearlove believes the Russians are on the back foot and will only come under more pressure to accept terms. “The Russians themselves badly need a ceasefire, but Putin is incapable of seeking one because he “doesn’t have a reverse gear,” Dearlove said. On Iran, responding to Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will hold direct talks with Tehran over its nuclear program, Dearlove says he believes the administration will “demand a very high price” — namely that Iran give up its entire nuclear program, both for energy and weapons. “I think there’s a bottom line for Trump and Israel that Iran must not have nuclear capability,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear that if Iran were to try to weaponize or if the intelligence suggests that they are weaponized, then there would be a joint Israeli-American attack.” Trump didn’t rule out military action if the talks don’t succeed, saying Tehran would have a “very bad day” if diplomacy failed. Dearlove agreed: “If the Iranians don’t negotiate, or if they mislead, which they’re quite capable of doing, they’re ones heading for a crisis.” Dearlove was head of MI6 when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, and was later criticized by a public inquiry for his handling of intelligence alleging that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, a key argument steering Britain into the war alongside Washington. At the inquiry in 2017, he described claims he was too close to the British government as “complete rubbish.” And, according to a BBC interview in 2023, he is among a minority of people who believe that Iraq did have some kind of weapons program, but that its components may have been moved into neighboring Syria. Looking ahead, Dearlove believes by far the biggest issue is how the West deals with China. “Pax Americana” — the “American peace” that has largely held since 1945 and is a byword for Washington’s postwar global dominance — has “definitively disintegrated,” he said. In its stead, there has to be “some sort of understanding between the United States and China,” whose President Xi Jinping “wants to create a world by 2050 which is aligned with China’s value system,” he added. “China and the West are intimately intertwined: You can’t take them apart, you can’t disentangle them,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s totally opposed to the Western value system.” He characterizes Xi’s Chinese Communist Party as “talking about global domination” — something vehemently rejected by Beijing. “There’s going to have to be some sort of international agreement which accommodates what I would describe as the two spheres of influence,” he said. Otherwise, China is “going to end up in a confrontation with the United States at some point in the 21st century.”