Taiwan's opposition party is negotiating a deal with Xi Jinping to abandon independence claims and stop military preparations, betting that accommodation with China is safer than relying on an unpredictable Trump administration that's stretched thin by the Iran war and skeptical of defending distant allies.

• Taiwan's Nationalist Party, which controls Parliament, is blocking defense spending and has signaled willingness to accept Chinese sovereignty in exchange for preserved elections and autonomy, modeled loosely on Hong Kong's arrangement before Beijing dismantled its democracy.
• Trump has publicly questioned the value of defending Taiwan, called weapons sales a "negotiating chip" rather than a strategic commitment, and praised Xi as a friend—signaling the U.S. may not intervene if China moves militarily.
• A Chinese invasion would likely succeed within weeks without sustained U.S. resupply; early losses would exceed 20 years of Iraq-Afghanistan casualties, and the blockade would wipe trillions from global markets, yet Taiwan's population increasingly sees resistance as futile.

A Chinese research vessel tested a device that can slice submarine data cables at depths over 3,500 meters. The electro-hydrostatic actuator drives a diamond-coated grinding wheel capable of cutting armored cables, marking another dual-use deep-sea technology. This comes amid rising concerns over suspected global sabotage of undersea communication and power lines.

• China tested a device from the ship Haiyang Dizhi 2 that can cut armored submarine cables at depths of 3,500 meters.
• The cutter uses an electro-hydrostatic actuator to spin a diamond-coated grinding wheel through steel, rubber, and polymer layers, and is small enough to mount on standard ROVs.
• The design stems from a 2025 Mechanical Engineer paper tied to Chinese state research institutions, alongside existing PLA navy patents for cable-cutting/retrieval tools and a separate towed-cutter proposal from Lishui University.
• Chinese vessels have repeatedly been spotted near damaged undersea cables and pipelines from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific, fueling concern this tech enables hard-to-detect sabotage under cover of scientific or commercial missions.