Hello everyone, today is Saturday, February 8th, on the East Coast of the United States. First of all, I wish you all a happy weekend. As usual, let’s quickly take a look at today’s hot news topics and then move on to interactive time to respond to questions from our friends.
Today’s Focus: Shiba Inu Takes Three Major Steps to Resolve Trade War; Musk Slashes at FEMA Again, Triggering Sleepless Nights for Some; CDC Swiftly Deletes Sensitive Reports, Pandemic Situation Changing?
Yesterday, Trump held his first formal meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shiba Inu, marking the second foreign leader received by Trump, after the Israeli Prime Minister, focusing on the Middle East peace during the Israel-Hamas War and the current state of the Indo-Pacific region during Shiba Inu’s visit to the U.S. After the meeting, the two parties issued a joint statement and held a press conference, mentioning a new buzzword, the determination to usher in a new golden era of U.S.-Japan relations.
In addition to reaffirming the longstanding foundation of U.S.-Japan relations, such as the application of the U.S.-Japan security treaty to the Diaoyu Islands, jointly maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region, supporting peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues, opposing any unilateral use of force or coercion to change the status quo, etc., the joint statement between the U.S. and Japan included some new changes that are worth our attention. What are the key points?
1. Japan emphasizes the need to steadfastly strengthen its defense capabilities fundamentally, which has been highly recognized by the U.S. This means that Japan hopes to further relax its military strength requirements, which the Trump administration strongly agrees with. Japan is smart to understand Trump’s mindset, as Trump hopes allies can autonomously enhance their defense, especially by using American military equipment to protect themselves, which he sees as a win-win situation and does not want the U.S. to dominate everything, which is also the case for Taiwan. So, it is actually a good time for Taiwan to purchase military equipment.
2. Shiba Inu’s success has temporarily averted a trade war. The Japanese side is concerned about whether the U.S. will impose “equal tariffs” on Japan. During the meeting, Trump did not make a clear statement about this, but he mentioned that both the U.S. and Japan will take measures to eliminate the current U.S. trade deficit with Japan. These measures mainly involve three major areas: Japan expanding its imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other resources from the U.S., planning to build a gas pipeline in Alaska; Japan plans to promote Japanese companies investing in the U.S. with a total amount exceeding $1 trillion and fully engage in cutting-edge cooperation and joint ventures in AI, computing power, quantum, and more; Japan’s steel company will no longer acquire U.S. steel companies but instead invest in American steel, participating in in the joint venture for capacity building and upgrades.
These three measures hit Trump’s sweet spot, so he is very satisfied, immediately agreeing to visit Japan and praising Shiba Inu as “looking very good”—as everyone knows, in Trump’s unique style of praise, this kind of statement represents extremely high evaluation and praise.
3. The most noteworthy is military cooperation, the U.S. and Japan will increase their troops stationed in the southwestern islands of Japan. Since these islands are adjacent to Taiwan, the moves imply a message to China. Furthermore, there will be an upgrade in the command and control systems of the respective forces of both countries. Despite this sentence being short, the shorter the news, the bigger the incident, and there is a significant amount of information behind it, which actually represents the U.S.’s recognition of the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ upgrading to the “Joint Operations Command” and the authorization of upgrading the responsibilities of the U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
So what’s the hidden agenda? There is a major hidden agenda. First of all, because of well-known reasons, the Japan Self-Defense Forces have not had and are not allowed to have joint operational capabilities among the ground, maritime, and air self-defense forces. Their command system is scattered and inefficient, with the highest military official of the current self-defense forces serving as the “Joint Chiefs of Staff,” primarily acting as a senior military adviser to the defense minister, the “order” system efficiency is very low.
Establishing a Joint Operations Command means that the Self-Defense Forces will form a unified joint operational command system, greatly improving command efficiency, and allowing for the construction of joint operational models between different military branches, significantly enhancing the combat power of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. To describe it in the words of a Chinese expert who gnashes his teeth, it is a “resurgence of Japanese militarism,” which turns it into an offensive military force.
Furthermore, the U.S. Army Command Headquarters in Japan has previously primarily played an administrative role in U.S.-Japan military cooperation, and the operational command authority of the U.S. forces stationed in Japan was directly controlled by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command headquartered in Hawaii. However, this time, the upgrading and expansion of the U.S. Army Command Headquarters in Japan have not only promoted the commander to a general, but also granted a certain level of operational command authority and the ability to directly command some aspects of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, effectively enhancing the military intervention capabilities of the U.S.-Japan alliance in responding quickly. Of course, this is very frustrating for China, ranting and accusing the Japan Self-Defense Forces of willingly becoming puppets of the U.S., and the U.S. and Japan conspiring with “sinister intentions.”
The more China suffers, the happier Trump is. China has made many gestures to please Japan in succession, which is actually a very low-performance act. Japan simply doesn’t truly believe in China, but instead uses this to greatly loosen its military power, leaving China in a dilemma, as it cannot immediately turn hostile and incite anti-Japanese sentiment.
1. Elioz, a member of the 6-person team who was forced to resign, has been reinstated. This incident once reached Trump’s ears:
Reporter: A DOGE engineer was fired for posting inappropriate posts, and the Vice President said he should be called back. What do you say?
Trump: I’m not very clear about this, but if the Vice President says so (turning to JD Vance), do you say the same? I stand with the Vice President.
Trump’s typical big brother temperament; Biden and Obama’s security clearances have been suspended: The revocation of security clearances means that Biden and Obama will no longer receive daily classified briefings, which may weaken their understanding and response capabilities to the current international situation. This to some extent limits their speaking rights and influence in public affairs, especially in handling national security and foreign policy.
In the statement revoking Biden’s security clearance, Trump mentioned that Biden had instructed U.S. intelligence agencies to stop providing him with classified information in 2021, which broke the tradition of former presidents enjoying the right to receive classified information. You do one thing, I’ll do ten, this is very Trump-style.
2. Trump formally orders Musk to audit the Department of Defense, a tough task, with seven previous audits failing to account for billions of dollars. Zelenskiy clarified that over a trillion dollars in aid to Ukraine alone has gone missing, comparing with USAID’s annual grant of $500 billion, which is just a drop in the bucket.
3. In the latest news today, DOGE has been granted access to the data of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the United States, causing many to lose sleep or get ready to protest. This is an agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), mainly responsible for coordinating and managing emergency response and disaster relief efforts of the federal government in natural disasters, public health emergencies, and national security events.
In other words, from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to Hurricane Helen, or the recent California wildfires, how federal funds have been used in these major emergencies, whether the responses were appropriate, and whether anyone profited from the national disaster, will soon be revealed. Today is Saturday, government departments are on holiday, and next Monday is likely to bring a new wave of public opinion tsunami, so let’s enjoy the calm before the storm.
The U.S. is facing the most severe flu epidemic in 15 years, according to the CDC’s FluView monitoring report, flu activity is at a high level nationwide and is still on the rise. At least 41 states have reported flu-like illness activity at “very high” or “high” levels, and the numbers of emergency room visits and hospitalizations related to the flu are increasing dramatically. Currently, at least 24 million people are infected with the flu, hitting the highest level in at least 15 years, with a 30% increase in infection rates. According to CDC data, among them, 310,000 people require hospital treatment, and since this winter, 13,000 people have died from the flu. States severely affected recently include Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Missouri, where severe outbreaks have led to the closure of some schools.
1. The New York CDC suddenly issued a notice to strengthen the testing for the H5N1 virus subtype and upgrade the quarantine treatment measures, indicating that there may be a worsening of the H5N1 epidemic in certain local areas. In fact, this notice is tantamount to informally acknowledging the existence of H5N1, otherwise, the New York CDC would not be so tense and alarmed. Yesterday, the media reported that a CDC report briefly appeared online but was abruptly deleted.
According to copies of the report that circulated, cats are highly susceptible to avian flu viruses, and may transmit the virus to family members, and vice versa. Data indicates that in one household, an infected cat may have transmitted the virus to another cat and a teenager. The cat died four days after showing symptoms. In a second household, an infected farm worker seems to be the first to show symptoms, followed by a cat falling ill and dying on the third day.
2. Key information point: Cats are highly susceptible to H5N1, which was previously known in the medical field, but it is the first recorded instance of cats transmitting the virus to humans, indicating an increased risk of human-to-human transmission after the virus has mutated. It’s unclear why the CDC deleted the report. Jennifer Nuzzo, Director of the Epidemiology Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, told the media, “If new evidence regarding H5N1 is being withheld for political purposes, this is completely contrary to the government’s responsibility to protect the American people.”
3. The pandemic is worsening, whether it is avian flu or the novel coronavirus, they could stage a comeback. If you are not sure whether you have the flu or COVID-19, you can buy an easy-to-use test kit to quickly test for influenza A and B flu and COVID-19, generally sold in a three-in-one set, ranging from 10 to 20 dollars.
“Jingyuan Talk” Production Team