Thank you, Dr. Engel!

As a friend who has recently shared, sometimes the hardest part of a career transition is saying bye to a chapter of your life that has defined who you are professionally.

Hopefully, I will gradually learn the art of this challenging yet fascinating profession.

This is certainly an exciting yet challenging new chapter for me, as I make a transition from journalism to the policy world.

I'm still grappling with the change of my professional identity, especially after I thought journalism was what I had set my heart on for the foreseeable future.

I’ll be based in Taipei and focus on analyzing regional geopolitical dynamics through the lens of conflict prevention and resolution.

Ngoc Hang, a retailer in Ho Chi Minh City, told VN Express that her revenues had dropped by half after the government announced the inspections and penalties.

“Consumers have called for boycotts, and I had to lower prices by 30-50% to liquidate my stocks.”

“Almost all children started to boycott [the dolls] because they saw it as a nationalistic issue, thinking that buying Baby Three was unpatriotic,” one vendor told AFP.

Retailers have slowed or stopped sales. According to data cited by state media from YouNet ECI, an e-commerce data analysis platform, the average price of Baby Three on Shopee and TikTok Shop halved in the first 10 weeks of 2025.

In response to online outcry, Vietnam’s industry and trade ministry ordered an inspection of toys supposedly displaying the line, warned they were “affecting national security and territorial sovereignty”.

However a suggestion that a heart-shaped design on one version of the doll looked like the controversial line that China’s government inserts on world maps to make a territorial claim over most the South China Sea sparked online backlash.

The Baby Three doll is Chinese-made and had reportedly been hugely popular among children and Gen Z in Vietnam earlier this year. Between September, when it first gained popularity, and December the dolls reportedly generated US$1.6m in sales.

Calling the increase "limited... reasonable and stable", Wu said the extra cash would be used to develop "combat forces in new fields and with new qualities", and to enhance reconnaissance, joint strike and battlefield support capabilities.

"The PLA (People's Liberation Army) is a force of action in countering separatism and promoting reunification," said Wu.

"You've ridden your steed to the edge of the cliff. If you persist in taking the wrong course, you will meet a dead end," he warned.

"The more rampant 'Taiwan independence' separatists become, the tighter the noose around their necks and the sharper the sword hanging over their heads will be," military spokesman Wu Qian said, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the words of Singapore's defense minister last month, America's image in the region "has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent."

Europe so far has borne the brunt of Trump's highly transactional foreign policy, but China, Taiwan and the rest of the Indo-Pacific are watching closely.

Elbridge Colby, a leading voice on the issue nominated for a top Pentagon role, told senators this week that Taiwan falling to China "would be a disaster for American interests."

Many top Trump officials have called for the U.S. to draw down its presence in Europe and the Middle East to focus on China's threat to Taiwan, seeing it as far more important than Ukraine.

Under the threat of tariffs, TSMC announced a $100 billion investment in U.S chip production this week — pleasing Trump, but alarming Taiwanese who fear it could make the island more vulnerable.