Bloomberg Japan’s Defense Ministry is seeking a record $50 billion annual budget that would entail the largest percentage jump in spending in eight years as it seeks to bolster its capabilities amid simmering tensions with China. If granted in full, the 5.5 trillion yen budget request for the year starting in April would amount to a 2.6% increase on the ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel took direct aim at efforts by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to assume her mantle to help topple her conservative bloc in the September 26 election. Scholz, who has engineered an unlikely poll surge for his Social Democratic party to become the favorite for chancellor, has conducted an unsubtle campaign to project himself as the rightful successor of ...

Bloomberg China’s top leaders will meet in November to discuss party history and achievements, just as President Xi Jinping takes aim at the nation’s yawning wealth gap and crackdowns on the tech sector. The Communist Party’s highest decision making body, the Politburo, fixed the month for the sixth plenum, a gathering of the larger Central Committee, state broadcaster China Central ...