i. respects. you're watching news asia coming up on the program tensions between china and taiwan continue to grow this turn into a flashpoint in the greater strategic rivalry between china and the united states. plus an update on the 12 hong kong activists who tried to escape by boat china now holds them under detention we take a closer look at family members who want their loved ones back.

i'm melissa chan welcome to news asia tensions between china and taiwan have hit a high not seen in years most recently chinese warplanes crossed to the median line the narrow strait separating the 2 sides over the past week that's according to taiwan's president high in one the united states plays a role in all this says taiwan's main supporter the trumpet administration plans to sell taiwan billions of dollars in weapons from missiles to surveillance drones in order to shore up its defenses against any potential attack by beijing taiwan is a democracy with a separate government but president xi jinping considers it a part of his people's republic of china. over ousting reception for taiwan's leader as she meets air force offices at one of the

territories most important to military bases. president sighing when he was there to deliver a special message following a spike in tensions between time in china so we're thinking of as a commander in chief of our national armed forces i want to assure the people that our national army officers and soldiers are absolutely capable and determined to defend the country and safeguard regional peace. it was from this base that pilots scrambled jets to intercept nearly 40 chinese warplanes and bombers that had entered taiwan's add a fan site. it was not the 1st time this had happened as these images of chinese fighter jets earlier in september show. but analysts say last week's intrusions were an unusually large display of force by beijing.

taiwan for its part is determined to prove it's prepared to defend itself. this live fire exercise in july is 1 of a number this year simulating a response to a chinese invasion. relations between beijing and taipei have become strained since the election in 2016 of president sighing when in part over her rejection of beijing's view that taiwan is part of one china. yet tensions have also been fueled by the presence of this man in taiwan in august u.s. health secretary alex is our became the highest ranking american official who visit taiwan since 979. his visit comes as the trump administration increases its support for taipei its ties with beijing sour china's reaction was furious. that they do congress as a political provocation to china it encourages the arrogance of the separatist forces to taiwan independence and undermines sino u.s.

relations and peace and stability china firmly opposed this i'm strongly condemns that. taiwan's leader has warned china to back off but there's little sign that beijing will comply with her wishes. joining us is dexter roberts he was formally bloomberg businessweek correspondent in beijing and his latest book is called the myth of chinese capitalism the worker the factory and the future of the world before we get into the economic angle to all of this because there is definitely an economic angle but do you think the characterization is correct that tensions between china and taiwan are at their worst in yours. yeah i'm afraid that they are we're seeing a situation now where china is threatening taiwan both virtually through its state media which is openly talking about war and of course in reality with the p.l.o.

air force doing this on slot of flights across the unofficial midline in the taiwan strait in recent days the foreign ministry spokesperson in china responded to the the concern in taiwan by saying there is no medline the in the taiwan strait because all of it the strait and taiwan included belong to china and of course there is a complex economic component to all of this taiwan china and the united states all do a tremendous amount of business with each other right. that's right yeah the relationship between those 33 places the u.s. china and taiwan his ex is extremely close economically you have a situation where some of the very top products by top u.s. companies apple i phones i now call i pads dell laptops the list

goes on they are produced in china by very very large type he's suppliers companies like foxconn packet tron and wish stron in very large factories there in china at the same time you have many of the top u.s. multinationals companies like intel micron general motors qualcomm starbucks the list goes on that are deeply reliance on the chinese market for their their growth so they would simply be much smaller companies if they did not have this very significant market in china and then the final thing is you have literally tens of thousands of mainly business people from taiwan that are resident in china and you have a tens of thousands of u.s. citizens also living there is an extremely extremely close and in twined economic

relationship so how does this not a regional mean for us. well i think that. if you look around the region and almost anywhere you everywhere you look you see the sources of tension already already very much alive between china and its neighbors if you look in the south china sea if you look at the east china sea around the same kaku islands or the gal you tie if you look on the indian chinese border there's already real tensions there almost every one of india's china's neighbors rather it is already involved in some kind of conflict with china if you look at again vietnam in the south china sea japan in these trying to see that the result of bloody violent clash on the indian chinese border that's really has been threatened by china i think that they've already got plenty of problems the last thing they want to do is be pulled into a situation where there's

a real conflict between the u.s. china and taiwan and they're being asked to take sides i think they're in a they're between a real rock and a hard place on the one hand they're deeply reliant on the chinese economy on the other hand they don't want to be told and certainly don't want to be sort of put under the thumb of this newly assertive china so the neighbors are all watching and as they watch the situation continue to terry and will this change if the u.s. elects by now as president and that's of course assuming the premise that the u.s. is what determines relations and not what president xi or president side does. yeah i think melissa you bring up a very good point we're only going to see an election as you know in one of them in washington and we're not going to see any change of leadership in beijing she being a party secretary has made it very clear that he has no intention of moving on and i don't think that china under xi jinping there's no suggestion that they want to

abandon this newly assertive. role in the region and she began globally including militarily so that's not going to go away and that tension is likely to continue to be just as just as a just as much a problem as it is now i think the other thing to keep in mind is that what we've seen in the u.s. is is is really the emergence of a bipartisan consensus that is deeply skeptical of china's motivations globally and very worried about what comes down just dexter roberts thank you. 12 hong kong activists who tried to flee to taiwan by sea last month did not make it instead of chinese authorities intercepted detained them and since then we've had little word about them because the government has denied them access to their families and their lawyers. has the latest. these old album is one of the few things

connecting jason the you and his younger brother luke the man who has lost contact with his family over the last month the high school student was among 12 detainees ranging in age from 16 to 33 intercepted by the chinese coast guard while allegedly you flee by speedboat from hong kong to taiwan they were then sent into custody in mainland china for what was termed illegal border crossing jaysus brothers bent his 85th birthday in detention. we feel helpless before my dad gets drunk when he looks at our family photos i've enjoyed numerous sleepless nights because i'm worried my brother could be facing unfair treatment in mainland china the worst scenario we can imagine is that we won't see my brother for a decade or more. his brother and most of the detainees are facing

charges in hong kong relating to the n.t. government protest last year the charges include arson and rioting one of the detainees was arrested last month under the sweeping national security law imposed by beijing chinese authorities haven't allowed any of them to meet lawyers hired by their families instead assigning government appointed lawyers the detainees families have been trying to get hong kong so far to used to help but think they became even more anxious one of china's foreign ministry spokesman labeled a 12 separatist jason set the lawyer hired by his family has also been pressured to quit what the authorities consider to be a sensitive case. it's far fetched and irrelevant to call illegal border crossing separatism i think for 12 of them fled hong kong because they were losing confidence in the independence of the

judiciary with the. hong kong authorities have been indifferent to our demands perhaps because those in custody are activists you see the u.n. human rights office and the u.s. secretary of state have both called on china and shortening the process and legal rights it's also concerned whether the issue will be after that diplomatically that's one of the detainees is a particular national. posting good wishes is perhaps the very least the portress can do the mainly forty's have to decide whether to formally arrested detainees by 1st of october which is the chinese artem festival and the traditional day off family reunion opposition lawmaker is following the case but they're not optimistic the major reason why holcombe people came last year to protest against it for those . who don't. express really. does the. nightmare come true they would definitely be used.

as a whole. group will become a park in the chip as u.s. china tensions gets worse. that's it for now be sure to check out our other stories on g.w. dot com for slash asia or on facebook and twitter we'll see you tomorrow thanks for watching. they will not succeed in dividing us not succeed in taking the people off the streets because we're tired of dictatorship. taking the stand. was that matters. made. by yourself. complex

5 years of hard hitting political and building the case if i do it. because that's what the free press that did you mean so we're coming back to that are you concerned or not concerned tim sebastian and sara kelly taking to the heart of the matter in north korea just to get the questions you believe little conflicts. on t.w. . fake tattoos fake breasts fake teeth artist cindy sherman has spent decades dressing up and taking pictures of herself but don't call them selfie it's her new reps retrospective coming up here on arts and culture and. funky visuals biting lyrics russian musician and go only on of sings out against

the kremlin and later on the show an opera about taboos and teenage drama. welcome to arts and culture for 40 years artist cindy sherman has been shifting shapes sometimes grotesque often on recognizable never vain she says she poses for her own photos because it's just easier than working with a model a new retrospective of her work in paris was supposed to start in april but then covered 1000 had other plans now the show at the foundation is finally open to the public. arts world part to recognize in each new guidance but with her own unique unmistakable style the camera is always.

a language her language is her own and she imposes presences because she has never stopped when using her language it's not documentary photography it's compositions based on a technique called photography. the retrospective. in paris encompasses 170 works. by the artist previously unseen place real people slips into movie roles creates fantasy figures work is often about the image of women if you see what interested me was the way she plays with this since generally the actress the model is a woman the director is a man and here she does everything from beginning to end she's the model but also the director the costume designer the producer etc in the end she claims her image completely. self portraits she

creates characters the artist has said she actually has the idea of fees. and yet she's also. a huge success on instagram go figure now speaking of social media a new generation of russian artists is speaking out online against the country's strongman leadership one of them is the openly gay musician i'll go off his very existence as a kind of protest in russia where publicly talking about same sex love can be deemed illegal propaganda his songs take president vladimir putin to task. see you nothing here nothing your brain enough. this is bang news corresponds to a landmark political development in russia new song domino is about changes in the

constitution that strengthen the power of president vladimir putin in july. i wrote this song when russia recently voted on the changes to the constitution for me this was a very important topic because we were quite simply jupe by the government. thanks changing freedom for emptiness and go off sings in another song written following a wave of protests. one year ago several 1000 people were arrested during protests ahead of moscow's city government elections. environmental activists protested across the country including. and in the far east of the country russians took to the streets in recent months to protest the arrest of a regional governor. for you know state media are ignoring the mood in the country

so he wants to highlight these events he's part of a wider trend. many musicians want to get this message out right now if you are a musician with no opinion your music is meaningless because visiting. something. you know is from a small village on the lake by karl in siberia in moscow the 32 year old 1st made a name for himself as a model and performer. started his music career just 2 years ago a vast country with a large music market russia is not an easy place for an artist who writes nuanced erik's and puts them to accessible beats but he soon found an audience here he's playing a gig in st petersburg. it

doesn't always have to be about politics when i talk to my audience it can be about values like acceptance and tolerance for example concerning the rights of people in russia. but it is always about freedom which angle you know of says is a rare commodity in his country. no one longs for freedom more than teenagers whether or not they're prepared for it over a century ago german playwright frank vidic and wrote about teenage longing in his drama spring awakening it broke taboos around sex rape homosexuality suicide and abortion since the place $1006.00 premiere it's been banned censored and also

performed in several languages now the national theatre and mannheim germany has reimagined spring awakening as an opera called dark spring. 37 since i was a teenager young adult i've been excited by the idea of writing an opera with protectionists who are on the cusp of adult hood at the exact moment they are shaping their lives style. with dark spring hence tamara set out to find the right tone for the feelings of his 4 characters it's the soundtrack to an emotional state of emergency. the search for identity in the age of social media. but is it an accurate picture of what does the generation of digital natives have to say the

it's mostly take for example the rooms in your home your own room usually a private room where you are alone with your thoughts and yourself but suddenly you are carrying this mini world around 2 of you this performative element oh god do i post this do this do that you're under social pressure in a way your putting on a performance on an entirely. whatever on display vulnerable on the catwalk of multimedia global existence. seemingly near and yet so far away in these areas of fear and these 4 characters that we have these 4 young people they're a kind of group their friends who keep trying to get a little bit closer to each other but they never do the only manage to get closer through a camera and come into the sunni and. the longing for

a real intimacy escalates driven by the beat of the music. don't spring gets under your skin was strong in. here's an ex temporary mix of styles from minimal music to musical. and i don't mean us of the figures standing alone in this large room singing actually arose out of the situation but i think it fits one defining. utopian moment for lonely young souls unites in a court sets the transition from childhood to the adult won't is clearly no walk in the. you know what else isn't a walk in the park dating especially if it's in another culture now each week our

reporter rachel stewart explores a different aspect of life here in germany this time she looks at what it means to love someone or to look for love of dutch. this episode of meet the germans is all about passion relationships and love in germany that's been very german about it and so it's a number. 2 thirds of germans believe in love with. getting married is 33 gay marriage is the needles in 2017 according to a study one of the happiest things and to be well educated women over the age of 40 . most people in germany still meet their partner through mutual acquaintances but online dating apps are not far behind. but what about when they're actually on a date other than any of the dated one job and i thought i'd bring in some detail you colleagues of mine to get a more rounded picture. i come from. them from the us maybe it was done and i'm originally from my memories for i come from. and i'm from australia. i

think that in germany it generally takes longer to get to know somebody. actually. about it when they say they really mean it and they don't see it nearly as often are the dating rules different in germany being punctual it's like rule number one i think just to. rush take it slower i wouldn't exactly say that chivalry is dead in germany but i do often have the feeling it's gone missing some times how do you know if your german is. i think always through the germans or not the raid is communicating the fact that they are into you they don't tend to be excitement if they're flirting it's not clear since around 2008 couples have been coming to this bridge and. as a lasting symbol of their love for one another there are well over 100000 padlocks on the bridge adding an estimated 50 tons of weight other cities around the world

have begun removing locks from their love bridges citing health and safety concerns but at least for now has won the day in cologne the sweet. opening of the german. we must. 0. shorey in league in a tournament up from 20 and found you would decline including the night. in coeur to kind of made it means it's and then it was most those who had to bust out on the hour and i'm going to college so i can have a big leap from going on to be. a proof to 60 of controversy about the queen in the auction business move back to my mother. and improve for barry is cautioning people. it's time for me to love you and leave you but before we go here's a little love related wisdom from gemini leave it at the westin marking the way to

a person's heart is through the stomach that has altered so want in germany you don't want your heart on your sleeve but on your tongue oh and i literally both lost all the love doesn't rust. what a romantic well that's it for me and the arts and culture team here in berlin but check out our website any time for more rachel and more culture news things are. going. to.

come out. sometimes senseless and. what connects people is stronger than the subjects that. is so strong that they can not be torn down. we celebrated the 30th anniversary of its realistic ation october 3rd on d w. conspiracy at the saudi consulate. a body that will never be found oh plot connected to the highest levels of government why did journalist jamal khashoggi have to die. was threatened by its work 2 years later and the reasons are still unclear on the concept of jump.

start september 30th on d w. early . hours of the morning. but i can't sleep the prosciutto was to zoom. in those law loads swollen. only as long. as will's. small moves no love. for the wicked. doesn't own the real world gives me a. hug. can't sleep.

couldn't sleep. her use. this is you know we're here was a lie from girl and they're giving it another go the european union makes another attempt to repair its broken migration policy so you commission on deals and overhaul to ease overcrowding and strained resources and frontline states a world of $27.00 members unites over such a divisive issue also coming out.