a period of downsizing of reform of modernization of the military that continues now and it's about charting the way forward in the theme really was about peace that the chinese are saying look they do not see expansion or hate germany but they are about protecting their own national interests overseas and sovereignty and we will talk about sovereignty it was of course inevitable that in this white paper this latest document that they would talk about taiwan of course china views taiwan as a breakaway province that one day it will retake with the use of force if necessary and recently we saw the united states make another weapons sale to taiwan worth more than 2000000000 dollars the chinese of course at the time condemned that silent in the white paper it makes specific mention of the weapons silences the united states is undermining global strategic stability inevitable as a say that the chinese would mention taiwan because this document talks about

sovereignty and that is an issue that is very close to the government here in beijing ok let's take a closer look at the white paper andrew thompson as a visiting senior research fellow at the national university of singapore still equine new school of public policy and joins us from singapore so as we heard our correspondent there he was talking about china now focusing on sovereignty as a huge part of its white paper can you explain why this has become the focus for china's defense strategy now. well i think if you look at the last paper in 2015 it really focused on china's maritime interests and its security situation on its periphery and with its neighbors this paper much more is turning towards internal issues i mean it's actually quite different than the 2015 paper in that it really reflects xi jinping has continued grasp of authority and his continued oversight of the p.l.o.

so it also very much underscores the is a party army it's the armed wing of the communist party and it's very loyal to him and that's reflected in the title in the titles of the sections so taiwan is very much a part of that she jingping montra and legacy so it's not surprising that that they'll really focus on taiwan and there's a lot of coverage on taiwan domestic issues preventing separatism so it's quite a it's quite a very robust document since the last white paper in 2015 there's been a major reorganization of the p.r. lay and a shift at the time 2 words maritime defense what do you think it's going to look like now going forward. well i think the big focus of the reform was to have the peel they fight is a much more cohesive joint force and there's some speculation that historically since 1908 the reports have come out every 2 years but there wasn't one in 2017 so

it's been a 4 year gap and we think that's likely due to the reform process that was announced in late 2015 so the idea is there's been a complete reorganization of the p.l.o. in terms of its command and control its organizational structure and there's been a lessening of the army's influence and size so much of the cutbacks have been to army personnel and proportionately there's been an increase in attention given to the air force the navy and then the 2 new forces the strategic rocket force and the strategic support force which is responsible for things like cyber space domains thank you very much drew thompson good to speak to you and get your insight. now in china rescue operations are underway off to 2 landslides in the southwestern province of. elisa 11 people died in show county and one person was killed in her

john county according to the chinese state broadcaster the landslide ensure chang buried 21 houses. mark asper has been sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of defense now this sense the longest period the pentagon has been without a permanent top official he's replacing james mattis who quit last year over policy disagreements with president donald trump the 55 year old has had a long career in the military and served as army secretary since 2017 as for steve strong bipartisan supports in the senate votes to 8. the chief of staff for puerto rico's governor has resigned this follows 11 days of mass protests that began over leaked messages between the governor ricardo reseller and his aides the online chats were widely condemned as being sexist and homophobic gabriella's on the reports from the capital san juan puerto rico is going to right now is no joke it's not just

a couple people out on the streets absolutely it's everyone in rock hill south was at home until adelphia watching news reports of the protests in her native puerto rico it was contemplating coming back to take part but what finally pushed her over the edge was what happened to her mom pepper sprayed one of the 1st few days and i was not going to let my mother get. and. my mother being on the front line and participating in this and fighting back and my not being here felt like that what tipped it over for me. i had to be here rockwell and acclaimed poet and activists got on a plane and headed back to puerto rico to take to the streets to call for governor ricardo russo you know to step down she was not alone there are about 6000000 puerto rican americans that live on the mainland of the united states there's no telling how many of them have returned here to the island to take part in these

protests but certainly it's in the 10s of thousands of people who do in the protest and it's easy to find puerto ricans who live abroad that come home to take part in this it's clear what is happening here has taken on more than a protest it's something larger for many puerto ricans i said that this was perhaps our version of an arab spring and. it's going to look very different but political movement doesn't. a leader in the home and doesn't have an organization at home being from this feels like revolution procmail indeed her afternoon as she has done every day since she's been back home chanting. the leader of a home where to resign. she says she will not buy a return ticket to philadelphia until it happens. juan puerto rico. if here because government has deployed troops to the south following violent protests at least 25 people have been killed in the southern region where activists

have been demanding their own state prime minister has won praise for political reforms but activists are now using their greater freedoms to demand more rights. kenyans finance minister has been granted bail after an unprecedented court appearance in connection with a corruption scandal has pleaded not guilty to abuse of power involving the contracts of 2 hydroelectric dams which have yet to be built catherine sort reports . henry rock which is in unfamiliar territory in a courtroom. he has been charged along with other government officials with several counts of corruption using office and the 40 in the government of more than $240000000.00 this is unprecedented he's the highest ranking government official to be arrested and charged at the center of the scandal our plans for the construction of 2 dams that was supposed to be built here in our game are quite western kenya

the prosecution says construction has not begun for years after it was commissioned yet some of the money has already been paid out and the cost inflated by $170000000.00 above what was forecast the $28.00 people are implicated including employees of the talian company which was awarded the contract as it was filing for bankruptcy prosecutors one the director of the company cheli to be extradited from italy to face trial here. some kenyans are saying this is a big step in the fight against corruption is a senior minister close to both the president and his deputy people now want a quick trial and those found guilty shields the asset seized and stolen money returned to the public kind of scene maybe people being arrested. people be understood everything but what can they want it's very thought how many have been convicted of something should be done. what options are god as

a country going to move for it's also a scandal that has been politicized some politicians as saying fasten community tired of being targeted and some individuals being used as scapegoats when now many kenyans are closely watching this case and those we talked to say they want public servants who have been implicated to resign from office. al-jazeera somebody who kenya. because to west africa is the most notorious in the world for piracy and kidnapping and as a number of attacks on ships continues to rise in the gulf of guinea my time experts are meeting in ghana for a security conference but our correspondent on that address went on patrol with again a navy to understand the extent of the problem. talking back sorry one is more than a week later it's intended destination. yes yes resting in the calm waters of tema off the coast of god. everything looks alright from the outside but onboard

evidence of why the vessel didn't make it to ivory coast in time. the ship was attacked by pirates in nigeria waters and 10 of its crew taken away as hostages. the others were luck to stay but was frightened. they told us. if you're. coming to here we are the ship. all my friends are sort of the. similar incidents have been reported $78.00 times in the 1st 6 months of this year. the international maritime bureau says the vast majority of the sailors kidnapped for ransom or taken off the cost of been in. guinea nigeria and tokyo while attacks by pirates have substantially decrease in some regions of the world they seem to be on the increase in west africa making the gulf

of guinea there was to bury in the world impacted by piracy fishing boats are sometimes targeted but most of the attacks so i carried out an oil and gas tankers experts say that the regional neighbors and coast guards need to coordinate better if they want to control the situation. we set out on patrol with a gun to me the gulf of guinea is the most dangerous streets of maritime territory in the world for attacks at sea but garner has seen a decrease in piracy incidents in its waters and that's been put down to sustained operations by its navy and not all the time ships. be fair to we in the what tests of our countries and then when they are called upon to be aware that this nations they go there are ships that are attacked by pirates when the are released.

different food that can and what does the citizen and saw that would be the fairest there is no point of calling. the gymnast a war is one of several gunships ghana has on patrol every hour of the day and sometimes there is support from their force. the navy believes it could do even more with increased funding. and not enough resources. you know pumped into into into the navy but gradually are when this has been built in society and the policy makers in any government and there we gradually been resourced. what more needs to be done in a region where piracy kidnappings and theft of oral a growing problem. in 2016 i jury alone as to be to its losses more than

a $1000000000.00 a month experts say the economies of the region rich in oil and fishing cannot sustain such great resources. but greece al-jazeera off the atlantic coast guard. this is there and these are top stories boris johnson is set to become the next prime minister of the united kingdom in the coming hours johnson has pledged to take the u.k. out of the e.u. by the end of october also high on his agenda for him will be tensions with iran and mending the u.k.'s relationship with the united states jonah hill has more details from westminster on whether a general election is on the horizon everything seems to be moving now in that direction in the general election is the only way to change the numbers in the house of commons that has so far failed to yield any positive way to breaks it

indeed the conservative party some in it have all talked about doing away with pardon altogether suspending it unilaterally so-called prorogue ing it though that seems to have been dealt with in a vote that the government lost last week that can no longer do that jeremy corbyn the labor leader has pointed out that boris johnson only visits the queen later today to become prime minister by virtue of votes of the members of the conservative party a fraction of one percent of the country's electorate south korea's defense ministry says russia has privately expressed regret for flying into south korean airspace now on tuesday russia and china carried out their 1st ever joint air patrol south korea says the planes crossed into its territory and the military fired warning shots in response. china's defense ministry maintains that the aircraft did not add to the territorial airspace of any other country it made that announcement as it unveiled its strategic priorities the ministry went on to highlight the issue of taiwan and in the u.s.

japan and australia for increasing tensions in the region iran's deputy foreign minister says iranian forces won't allow shipping in the strait of hormuz to be interrupted a british flag oil tanker was seized there on friday britain's proposal for european led naval mission to ensure safe passage in the gulf is supported by denmark france italy and ireland. oh those are the headlines we'll have plenty more news ahead but 1st inside story stay with us for that. after 25 years of aborting the world's waste china through the global cycling industry into chaos. the growing pressure of agreement resulting in change we bring you the stories to the shaping the world we live in. counting the cost 0. he's a hard core briggs if here now boris johnson will be the you case prime minister

after winning the conservative party leadership so how will he deliver on greg's it and the many other challenges ahead this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm divya gopalan boris johnson had campaigned on a do or die pledge to deliver brags that the man has provoked much controversy one the leadership of the conservatives as was expected and will become britain's next prime minister when johnson walks into number 10 downing street this week he will be toss would persuade in the european union to revive talks on withdrawal deal if that fails he says he is ready to lead britain out of the block without a deal on the 31st of october but gregg's it is not johnson's only challenge the

prime minister has to deal with an escalating standoff with iran over its seizure for u.k. tanker in the strait of hormuz and this critics will be watching very closely how he handles the so-called special relationship with the us donald trump is back jonson to become the u.k.'s prime minister that boris johnson won the leadership contest against foreign secretary jeremy hunt taking 66 percent of the vote among the 160000 the legible party members the number of eights given to each candidate was as fully jeremey hunt 46 that was and 650 or. 92153. and therefore i give notice 1st johnson is elected as the leader of the me.

and his victory speech johnson promised to deliver bags it unite britain and defeat labour's jeremy corbyn i say to all the doubters. we are going to energize the country we're going to get bricks dug october 31st will take advantage of all the opportunities that it will bring in a new spirit of can do and we are once again going to believe in ourselves and what we can achieve unlike some slumbering giant we're going to rise and pick off the guy ropes so tight the negativity with the education better infrastructure more police fantastic food for the broadband sprouting in every household we are going to unite this amazing country and we're going to take it forward i thank you very much for the incredible honor that you've just done me i work flatiron from now on with my team that i will build i hope the next few days to repay your confidence but in the meantime the campaign is over and the work begins well who is

britain's new prime minister boris johnson's wealthy british parents were in new york when he was born in 1964 he gave up his us citizenship he began his career as a trainee journalist for the times newspaper but was soon sacked for falsifying a quotation then he was a daily telegraph brussels correspondent where he often wrote stories critical of the european union he became a conservative party member in parliament in 2001 and served as the mayor of london for 2 terms until 2016 which is this when he successfully led the leave campaign of the brakes at referendum he was britain's foreign secretary until he resigned a year ago over terrorism a spread. now we can bring in our guests we have catherine mcbride is in london for us she's a senior economist at the institute for economic affairs in hamburg via skype

marcus becker he's the europe correspondent for the german news magazine der spiegel and also in london jones he's a political commentator and columnist at the british newspaper the guardian and welcome to all of you thank you for very much for coming on this program i'm going to start with catherine mcbride and i ask you. what you think boris johnson's biggest challenges when it comes to the tory party now we're going to talk about brags it in a little bit to the good because that's the defining legacy for boris johnson but let's talk about the tory party right now what's just happened. with the many members threatening to leave if he goes through with what he's promised i'm not sure that this threatening to leave the policy but they are certainly several ministers have already resigned though said there will be resigning they only have a majority of 4 busy at the moment and there is

a by election on the 1st of all just which they're likely to lose to the liberal democrats who used to hold the seat so it's it is liberal liberal democrat sort of territory. that reduces the majority down to 3 and embarrass has a very big job of picking a new cabinet he's got to pick a cabinet of people who are really can do is people who believe in his agenda that's very important i think to resume a suffered from having a lot of people in the cabinet who are actively working against her agenda. and that she doesn't want to try and break to resist record for the most ministers resigning c. so i think that that will be he's his 1st key thing is to position his cabinet properly and then he's got to inspire people to follow him and believe that life can be fine outside of the european union and that's what they have to do

that's the most important thing he has to do is is brick's it obviously if he doesn't then they have the bricks at passy breathing down their necks as well so that is. yeah let me bring in owen jones here we're not going to talk about greg suggested we just want to talk about what the u.k. needs right now in a leader he's a strong personality he's almost the anti antitheses suit series in may is this the kind of person that the u.k. can trust to lead them in troubling time said. no the clown show begins that boris johnson has been sacked twice for dishonesty once as you noted by his own newspaper another time by the leader of the conservative party he wants was recorded discussing conspiring to beat up a journalist with these criminal friend is somebody who you submitted.

votes on the same day one column supporting remain and the other column supporting leave which is the one of course that was was probably it was actually published he's made a string of deeply offensive and bigoted remarks comparing black people to pick an unease with watermelon smiles gay people to tank top bomb boys compared equal marriage to 3 men marrying a dog joked about clearing the bodies from libya to turn it into a tourism resort i mean you know the only consistency in this man's career is as he can self would put it admittedly in his own slightly contrived colorful language is stunning not for certainly interest so just a few weeks ago he boasted of being one of the only politicians in the aftermath of the financial crash to stand up for the bankers now after a near lost decade will oversight over the last decade since the financial crash

and bear in mind the city of london of course bankrolled the conservative party to a very large degree that sector is extremely unpopular and there's huge amounts of anger towards it so i suppose the picture based on his past record and again as foreign secretary had nothing nothing whatsoever to put to his name or the other than a string of environments in the european union where he was described by one diplomat as it was the 1st time in his create been ashamed embarrassed to represent his own country where senior conservative aides said in meetings he had no attention to detail no concentration whatsoever among his window all his life this is a man who is based on his past record is deeply interest. worthy deeply and principled completely inconsistent and only stands up for people of a certain class his own and indeed i have to say if he wasn't a privileged man from a very privileged backgrounds his career would have been ended a very very very long time ago and that says a lot about class read in britain ok having heard that catherine you're

a supporter of boris johnson if you'd like to tell us why you think he is the man for this job. well actually i think that what we really need is a bit of optimism at the moment and i think doris can inspire optimism i i also think that he is not quite the class that owen thinks he is he did go she but he went on a scholarship as far as i'm aware so i think that he's certainly not from the lowest classes but he's not quite from the landed gentry either and i think that that's quite good because it shows he has the and aspirational ability that is what our country really needs but i i think that obviously he has offended a lot of people in his newspaper column but he writes to be amusing i don't think he writes that as a politician as much as he writes it as a journalist and so i think that

a lot of what has been said in his column we have to take with a pinch of salt in the reason it was written and it wasn't written to be as serious as a serious politician which he now is so obviously out expect him to to stop brushing the column or at least write it in a completely different manner. i think that he's he's very different in that way from to reason may he was very timid and didn't want to offend anyone. and i think boris is bombastic i do accept the fact that he's said a lot of things that upset a lot of people but i don't think he was intending to upset them i think it is. you know. it was the way if you read the whole article a lot of times things are taken out of context and the. there was a and a tory assad a collage about him talking about women wearing burkas but he actually in the article said that they had the right to wear whatever they liked but everyone

missed that out and just talked about his opinion on burkas so that i think sometimes you you can just take the soundbite you've got to actually read the article with what he's written but i think his the important thing about boris is that he will inspire us to to go forward and take a chance i think we've got to stop the sort of increasing nanny state that is making everyone terrified of trying something new right my question now would be to marcus becker. boris johnson has built a career on criticizing the your european union do you think he would be able to work out a deal for bragg that that would be good for the united kingdom. i'm pretty skeptical about that because the problems he faces are still the same problems faced by a theory to make and. boris johnson has not the most fortunate of history

so that the you will remember that you started his career as a journalist of the chile to daily telegraph in brussels where he will basically. did a little face journalism with. ludicrous things about the e.u. and not how in the last couple of weeks he hardened his line towards the use of more saying things that are basically incompatible with reality like for example he said in interviews that he wants to break up the withdrawal agreement and take only the best bits in it then he said that he wanted to withhold the exit bill then he said that he wanted to kill the north an island that stopped all together which were basically kill any deal at the same time he says he wants to have a free trade agreement until this free trade agreement is done he wants to have

a standstill so basically that's the transition period where everything stays the same but this transition period is part of the withdrawal agreement so if there is no withdrawal agreement there is no transition period so everything johnson says doesn't quite match so i think this is a fundamental problem and i think this will be a major injuries for him to be able to conclude a deal with the u.s. that aside owen jones if they were better to have a pullback that here and the bars johnson has been a staunch supporter of brag that to be negotiating a deal then a people who are on the fence. well i mean he wrote a column supporting for may need to submit to the column supporting leave i think his support for bracks it was entirely opportunistic and even those who support him at the moment tory m.p.'s he probably don't think he capable of being prime minister will tell you that but the issue is that when he talks about optimism you know evoke a again in in is ludicrous consistently because star if we can put

a man on the moons then then we can secure the bracks it that that he wishes well firstly of course print did not pour money on the moon but that minor detail aside you know it's a bit like me saying all i can jump out the window and fly like superman and he want to suggest otherwise is just being pessimistic anyone can abuse that's an optimism to describe attempting to achieve an impossible end in the impossible and that he's trying to achieve is trying to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement which has been rejected of course repeatedly by parliament but which the european union has said there will be no regular renegotiation of whatsoever and the problem is now effectively any form of brett deal any deal with your pain union through the form of any withdrawal agreement is seen as a not a genuine threat saying he himself said that the withdrawal agreement which he actually ended up voting for would leave britain in

a state of vassalage at the same time you have the brics party which was founded by the former you could lead a nigel farage which so far has taken a huge amount of the conservative support without them that's always been a panicked and installed policy johnson is the lead of their party in the 1st place and if he comes up with a deal of any sort they will say that's not really bret's it is brett's in name only and they will do to that deal what boys johnson and others did to trees amazed and so the only genuine breck's it now amongst most leaf supporters is a no deal bracks it was no majority for our in parliament so we either at the most likely option as he calls a general let. for tomba now if that was the case you know you're going to have to say he's going for no deal or he has to say he's going to renegotiate a deal in which case the brat supporters say we don't trust this guy. they will drop that risks eating into resupport all right catherine so in that sense is he heading to another election boris johnson particularly few tries to push through

his no deal of gender and because he's got what they're calling a way for a thin margin within the conservative party is that inevitable i think most people expect it is oddly enough i don't get to say this that often so i am just going to say i agree with most of what jones has just said. i think that they withdrawal agreement is did. the idea of picking out the good bits is pretty difficult because there aren't many. respects is not necessary anymore there are definitely ways around that there's a mess of tone was published by prosperity u.k. last week showing how we can deal with the irish border and keep it seamless and we can follow the ways that have been used even brazil has introduced a trust a trade a scheme which is working very well and much better than the you use one so there

are definitely things to do and i do believe that we will end up with a no do brics that because that's probably the only thing that the parliament will not stop and that is the problem we have a lot of m.p.'s who will go out of their way to stop the u.k. leaving even though the u.k. democratically voted to leave and the only way you can change the concern is const to. the then members of parliament is of course to have an election so i do think we'll probably have an election quite soon. i don't see another way around that. i expect various tories have been particularly. active in stopping bricks it will probably lose their seats. and there's a chance will depends on where labor comes down whether they support remaining and or whether they support leaving there's a bit of a division in the labor party at the moment but whichever way they go they they

have to choose carefully they either locate london and back remaining or and that's loses them the north or they placate the north and back leaving and that loses them london to the liberal democrats so. it's going to be an interesting election definitely interesting times ahead so marcus what do you make of the fact that president trump is a huge supporter boris boris johnson he said he's tweeted his approval of boris johnson winning the prime ministership is that going to be a concern to the european union when they negotiated boris johnson the fact that the u.k. is showing all indications of moving towards the us. i don't think so will because it's basically nobody really surprised about donald trump being to lie to the to bruce johnston there was a compromise because they basically are made of the same stuff when is when it

comes to property is when it comes to their relationship to truth on and i think you is still an oster. possible u.k. snap election so you still pursuing its major most important goals and the the of the most important warm above all else is to protect the single marxist and.