involved in questioning him on this committee and across those parties do not believe take talk is safe in terms of national security for the united states. peter stephens, a months that live from washington. thank you very much, the fun and that's it from me and the news team. i'll have an update for you at the top of the all, i do not go away. bureau vanity has news asia for you just after a short break. and of course, there's always all websites for more news and lots of analysis at d. w dot com. go ahead. i was in berlin from me and the new steam. thanks for do you like it? do you want it? ok then buckle up, put the pedal to the metal and let's ride with

read on d w. we've got some hot tips for your bucket list. ah romantic corner chat hot spot for food and some great cultural memorials to mood w, travel off we go. oh this is it avenues a shock coming up today. an election that from determine thailand's course for years to come. the country has to hold for the government facing for ratings and bringing it back to challenge to the military trip from power plus entire it's military prepares to defend the island. the armed forces conduct

a series of drills, practicing the response to a mock seaborne invasion. ah, i've been expanded, you welcome to did up the news a shark that you could join us. the stage is set for thailand to hold a general election in may after the distribution of parliament. by government decree, current prime minister, paiute, john archer, launched the move seeking to extend his time in office, the election bits him and the military backed establishment against an opposition block held by building a populist and to time former prime minister talk. since you know what, his daughter bent on tongue she know what is the leading candidate for prime minister parties, lead and back to my talk soon have one the most seats in every election since 2001 bought have been toppled from par by military coups and court rulings

and joining us for more and this is taylor bong. so the right professor of political science, actually, lunk on university in bank called mr. possibly. right. why has prime minister problem john, which i decided to seek new elections now? basically in the lower house, i mean for years has expired. it's me to on elections. i has been delayed for some weeks and months. it was early on elections . but now my now coming out on the 14th does prime minister approach on which i believe that the current political climate might be mildly favorable to him. i don't think that he believes that the environment is favorable to him because he would have caught an earlier lesson at the top. so at the same time, if you look at the, the trends in bangkok, thailand where i am now,

you look at the various local parties, the momentum, the lack of performance government, and generally on lack of popularity. you can see that the momentum is not with them . i think that the less and prospects are not good for him and you said united nation party. and that was the other course in government parties. so i think this election coming up is very close question. and by the way, for you audience, this is the most important election. i have the last 2 tickets, not just this yet. it will decide if you just type audit and finance and so on. and now they are setting up the comments, but speaking of the opposition bought or he's also facing a challenge from the beginning about family, how much popular support do they have? it is remarkable. i mean i've been an early critique of this. you know what family from 2 decades ago, 20 years ago. but the timing, again,

this party has been to thought twice. this is a vehicle now and is going to win the election again based on all surveys. so there's something going on here and how come this part it out if i'm it twice in 20062014. this all white by the judiciary is still going to win this election. he says that kind of lecture is changing. they want the policy at that, that the party as perpetuated. ok. so this means basically that the popular life is majority of the electorate and want something else to want a different kind of future that the. so if you force it more, you putting up how much control does the military have or the outcome of this election? considerable, i mean it had decided to control before after it, cool in 2014, we had a military government. and during that time, the military came up with its own kind of constitution give itself one back,

control parliament. but nevertheless, it, it was able to form a cause in government in 2009 in the last election. but this time, despite stacking the rules, despite haven't been powerful, 90 is still on course to lose the election. but this is where i think things will get tens and confrontational, and the military is not going to go away quietly. has been number of cause in thailand and it's not out of the imagination that act in the same way. again, you keep power along with the forces in pilot. and we've had seen that judicial who's already judicial, the solutions of parties. so it's not straightforward election, and i mean the difference of the forces led by they will do all they can't maintain power out. and what are the main issues that are likely to dominate this election campaign? a lot of other countries, you know, there are different lines,

different issues that the why the electorate, that the basic issue is, is what kind of political or that political framework should this country have? what kind of role should the military have? what kind of rules monarchy have within the constitution, and how the majority of electorate should be able to choose the will of the people should be able to choose the future of the country. so this is a main, i think, of fundamental comments in this election, but there are other issues about the welfare policies, about income redistribution, about close strategy development projects and so on. but overall, is about what kind of political framework that kind of should have with the military, the monarchy, bureaucracy, and the will of the people, political parties, democratic institutions, have democratic institutions have to prevail as with the traditional institutions.

otherwise, people will not be happy, as we've seen in recent years. demonstrations. we leave it there for the time. we find it so much for joining us to their fitness function. there are functional. i'm going to investor in back. ok, thank you. ah, timelines, military has practiced empty landing exercises in the north of the island, the drill simulated propelling, and enemy force landing on a beatrice and troops fighting back invaders who entered residential areas. the drills come in the week of the highest levels of tensions between taiwan and china . in recent years, paging is absurd and growing ties between the united states and taiwan. and his bowed to reunify, the island by frenzy for tonight and gentlemen, for more context is dw correspondent, william yang. william, let's talk about these drills fast. do they give us an indication of how taiwan

intends to fight off a potential chinese envision? yes, indeed. this is an important cross military exercise that time one is trying out between the air force and also the navy and the defense ministry has already said they will increase the frequency of such a cross military collaboration and drill because it's very important for time one to be able to actually carry all these different strategies and scenarios, and they're also going to have more senior trainers to start educating the younger pilots about the different kinds of scenarios and strategies that they will have to face in a real life battle. so i think this is a really important indicator about time once overall efforts putting into the national defense, especially after the over or reform that we saw that was laid out late last year.

talk to us about this overall reform. what steps is tiwana taking to make sure it is capable of resisting possible chinese aggression? so there are many different facets of this reform. one else, the most important part is the extension of the compulsory military service. originally, it was shortened down to 4 months spent. now is being extended back to at least one year. and at the same time, there are a lot more content of life's life fire drills that are going to be included in the exercise. and also the training for the come of the conscripts, but at the same time for the reservists as well. because in the past there were a lot of complaints about these trainings not being solid enough. so the ministry is now really putting in a lot of efforts to include real life life fire drills for these soldiers to have an experience in different kinds of scenarios and actually hands on experience with

different types of weapons. and of course, we are also seeing a lot more military, a purchase that is going to be approved in the coming months. and also years in the united states is increasing its number of military personnel in taiwan to help the time when he soldiers to get familiarize with all the new weapons that are about to be approved from the washington. over the next few years, william does type a think or chinese invasion is inevitable. i think that the moment the government's stance is still that they don't think china is going to immediately launch any kind of military invasion. however, the threat and also the need for taiwan to increase its own capability and preparation is definitely rising compared to just a few years ago. so that's why we're seeing all these reforms being carried out. that's right around the time in the last year of the current president time once

administration because she wants to make sure before she leaves office. there are these very important ground rules and also frameworks in place. so down the incoming government, whoever takes over from her, is going to be able to continue down this new path of the beef of defense that we are seeing throughout the 87 years that she's been in power. let's talk about the quality in taiwan because he did talk about the i've got a president saying when you have a former time when he's president, my young joe, who will be china next week. the 1st visit by a former leader since 1949, he's from the opposition k m t. what does that see about how united tie one's polity is and resisting the threat from china? i think because next year, in less in about 10 months, we are going to have a very important presidential election to decide the next president. that's why we

are seen the main opposition party going down really starting to engage with china again at a very frequent basis. was just a few months ago there, deputy chair, person of the party also led a delegation to china and then they met some key chinese officials that are in charge of taiwan affairs. and so this visit by mine, joe, who until today still has a lot of influence inside the party is definitely very important signed the the cam t is trying to differentiate itself from the ruling party, the d p. p which has long been advocating for preserving taiwan sovereignty. and they came to note that they need to differentiate themselves from the d p. p. other time when the cross street tensions are rising and the international community is very concerned about the situation across the taiwan straits. so they want to, i think, present themselves as

a party that's capable of maintaining communication between paging anti pay rather than the d p. p. because we know that since time when took power in 2016, basically paging has cut off almost all official contact with ty paid for the last 7 years. and that is one of the factor that a lot of the international experts are saying it's increasing the level of uncertainty across the town story and attention. so the deep the campus definitely trying to present itself in a different role. that's it for today. ah ah, a quick holiday get away is always possible. june rattie indulges in $330.00 trip on the dw travel reporter and youtube are discovers the peculiarities of berlin, munich, and cologne with an intimate look at germany,

the big city checking in on d. w. one german d, w $164.00. and with this award winning offer, he's available worldwide for every language level. learning german has never been so bored german to go with them. hello and welcome to this special edition of check it.