TAINAN, Taiwan — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te oversaw on Thursday the first civil defense drills under his newly created social resilience committee simulating how to respond to a large-scale disaster like a tsunami or attacks on critical infrastructure.

The drill, in the southern city of Tainan, was held under the auspices of Mr. Lai’s new Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, set up last year to prepare to deal with natural disasters or other emergencies such as an attack by China, which views the democratically governed island as its own territory.

Speaking to participants after viewing some of the drills, Mr. Lai said these were the first live drills for the committee and involved around 1,500 people and there would be more next month.

“The aim is to build the resilience of the Taiwanese society to cope with large natural disasters or major accidents that cause a lot of injuries, or regional geopolitical changes. We dare not fail to prepare,” he added.

“As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure and we should rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him,” Mr. Lai said.

“We hope that through strength, not only of the military but also the resilience of the entire society in defense, we can ensure Taiwan’s security and ensure that peace can be achieved through the demonstration of our strength.”

Shortly after Mr. Lai spoke, Taiwan’s Defense ministry said China had on Thursday held another “joint combat readiness patrol” around the island with 28 fighter jets, drones and other aircraft, as well as warships.

The Tainan drills simulated scenarios such as a tsunami after a massive offshore earthquake and “explosions” at a passenger port terminal, evacuating casualties to triage centers and setting up emergency response command posts.

Under tents, casualties were laid out on the ground and treated, as other officials used large white boards to keep track of their care and who had died or the level of injuries.

While Taiwan’s military, which is at the front lines of helping deal with actual disasters like earthquakes, was not directly involved, the armed forces did lend equipment to set up outside operating theaters and other medical equipment.

Also attending and viewing the drills were the de facto US, European Union, Polish and Indian ambassadors to Taiwan, among other senior foreign diplomats including Britain, Singapore, Japan, Israel, Canada and Australia. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump gets better marks for his hardline approach to immigration than he does on his handling of the economy, foreign policy or other issues, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, as the Republican tries to ramp up arrests and deportations.

About half of US respondents in recent polls approved of Mr. Trump’s approach to immigration compared with a little more than a third who thought he was doing a good job dealing with the high cost of living, the other major issue in his 2024 campaign.

Americans have taken a more hawkish view of immigration since Trump first burst onto the national political stage in 2015, and the latest poll results show that immigration is the issue where he draws his greatest level of support, both among his Republican base and with political independents.

The latest poll also showed that Americans were about twice as likely to view the economy as a top priority as immigration, in a potential warning sign to Mr. Trump.

Some 86% of Republicans approved of Mr. Trump’s immigration actions while Republican support for his approach to the cost of living was around 69%, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted March 21-23.

Mr. Trump kicked off a wide-ranging crackdown after taking office on January 20, sending military troops to the US-Mexico border and reassigning federal agents to assist with immigration enforcement. His administration has increased arrests and opened up new routes to deport migrants, even as deportations have lagged those under former President Joseph Biden, a Democrat.

The president has also targeted legal immigration, attempting to freeze the US refugee resettlement program and revoke visas and green cards of students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. In an executive order,Mr.  Trump tried to restrict automatic birthright citizenship, sparking a legal battle.

The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border dropped to the lowest level in decades in February and apprehensions are on pace to be similar or even lower in March, two US Customs and Border Protection officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal data.

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Mr. Trump won back the White House by focusing on four core issues: controlling illegal immigration, promoting economic growth, bringing down inflation, and combating liberal policies related to race and gender.

“Among those four, he’s clearly been the most successful on immigration,” Mr. Ayres said. “He has through his rhetoric alone essentially shut down the southern border.”

“On the other hand, he has threatened the economy with tariffs … inflation continues to go up, and the various economic indicators are nowhere near as successful as the immigration indicators,” he said.

Since taking office, Mr. Trump’s overall approval rating has been largely stable, with just under half of Reuters/Ipsos survey respondents approving of his performance as president, including 45% in the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey. That’s higher than his rating was throughout most of his first term, and above most of Biden’s ratings.

Some 49% of respondents in the latest poll approved of his performance in immigration, compared to a 38% approval rate on the US economy, a 34% rating on the cost of living in the country and 37% on foreign policy.

“After four years of the Biden administration’s malfeasant handling of our southern border and immigration laws, Americans are breathing a sigh of relief knowing they finally have a president who puts Americans and America First,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an e-mail.

PUSHING THE LIMITS
Public appetite for tougher immigration policies has grown since the start of Mr. Trump’s first term in 2017 when he pledged to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and ban travelers from majority-Muslim nations.

Some 60% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this month said they supported increasing deportations of immigrants in the US illegally, up from about half during Mr. Trump’s first term.

Democrats — who railed against Mr. Trump’s first-term immigration moves — have been less vocal this time, including regarding Trump’s March 15 decision to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.

A federal judge blocked the move the same day, but two planes carrying deportees continued to El Salvador. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued over the matter, contends the wartime law cannot be applied to target alleged gang members. Family members of some men believed to be detained at a Salvadoran mega-prison have rejected the gang label.

While some Democrats have criticized the move, others have been more measured. US Senator Ruben Gallego told the Arizona Daily Star that he would support sending “dangerous” migrants to El Salvador if there was adequate due process and said the Republican push to deport gang members was a political “trap.”

Reuters/Ipsos polls suggest that Mr. Trump’s harsher measures could turn off some voters.

Just 39% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month said they agreed that immigrants in the US illegally “should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings.” Some 48% said they disagreed.

“The American public is not anti-immigrant, they’re just anti-chaos,” said Beatriz Lopez, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub, a Washington-based immigrant advocacy organization.

She said Mr. Trump could face more public blowback for increasing arrests of non-criminal immigration violators and trying to strip away legal status from people already in the US.

“This is clearly them going after people who aren’t criminals, who don’t fit their version of America,” she said. “They’re disrupting and destabilizing families and communities.” — Reuters

US PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump said on Thursday that larger tariffs could be placed on the European Union (EU) and Canada if they both work together “to do economic harm to the USA.”

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump unveiled a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, expanding a global trade war and prompting criticism and threats of retaliation from affected US allies.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the move as “bad for businesses, worse for consumers,” while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney labeled the tariffs a “direct attack” on Canadian workers and said retaliatory measures were being considered.

The new levies on cars and light trucks will take effect on April 3, the day after Mr. Trump plans to announce reciprocal tariffs aimed at the countries responsible for the bulk of the US trade deficit. They come on top of duties already introduced on steel and aluminum, and on goods from Mexico, Canada and China.

The EU has said it will delay its first set of counter-measures to mid-April, including a 50% tariff on US bourbon. In response, Mr. Trump threatened to slap a 200% tariff on all wines and other alcoholic products from the EU if the bloc went ahead with this. — Reuters

SEOUL — South Korea has set up a “reciprocal” platform in a disputed area of the Yellow Sea, known in Seoul as the West Sea, where China has increasingly built structures, Oceans Minister Kang Do-hyung said on Wednesday.

China says its structures are fish farming equipment, but they have raised alarm bells in Seoul over concerns Beijing could be seeking to stake claims in the Provisional Maritime Zone, where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones overlap.

Mr. Kang told parliament that South Korea is monitoring the Chinese presence by setting up a stationary floating platform for “environmental survey.”

“South Korea has taken reciprocal measure with a large-scale floating object,” he said.

In February, a South Korean research vessel sent to examine the Chinese structures was blocked by Chinese coast guard ships and rubber boats carrying civilians, according to South Korean media reports.

The South Korean coast guard also deployed and was involved in a two-hour standoff before retreating, the reports said.

Lawmakers from South Korea’s ruling People Power Party on Tuesday called the Chinese presence a “direct challenge to marine security” and urged a more forceful response.

Kwon Young-se, chairman of the party’s emergency response committee, said China was using fishing as a pretext and compared its actions to those it has taken in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims vast swathes of the area, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“The West Sea is not just a sea, the West Sea is Korea,” he said. “It is where many fishermen make their living, and the front line of our security.”

In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Seoul said some reports about the structures were not factual and that they do not violate any agreements.

“The fact is that the relevant facilities set up by China are deep-sea fishery aquaculture facilities located in China’s coastal waters, which are China’s reasonable use of offshore marine resources,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

China maintains communication through diplomatic channels, and hopes to “avoid unwarranted politicization of the matter,” the spokesperson added. “China and South Korea have maintained good and smooth communication on their differences related to the sea.” — Reuters