Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: May 22, 2016 Edition

Early on Saturday morning, the United States military carried out a drone strike that likely killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban.

The United States, South Korea, and Japan will hold a joint exercise in Hawaii in June 2016, on the sidelines of the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise; RIMPAC is the largest international maritime security exercise and will run from June 1 to August 1, 2016.

The trilateral U.S.-South Korea-Japan exercise will focus on anti-missile operations amid growing ballistic missile threats from North Korea, which has undertaken a flurry of tests since the beginning of this year to improve its missiles. The exercise will take place under the ambit of a December 2014 trilateral intelligence-sharing agreement, according to a South Korean defense ministry official who spoke to Yonhap News.

On Tuesday, in international airspace over the South China Sea, two Chinese fighter jets flew dangerously close to a U.S. EP-3 Aries signals reconnaissance aircraft. Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, confirmed on Wednesday to NBC News that “two tactical aircraft from the People’s Republic of China” had attempted a dangerous intercept against the U.S. patrol aircraft, coming with 50 feet.

Sri Lanka’s civil war ended on May 18, 2009 — seven years ago. The country’s government forces defeated the Tamil Tigers, a group that had been fighting for a separate Tamil state in the nation’s northern and eastern provinces. Credible allegations of abuses committed by Sri Lankan military personnel and the Tigers have persisted since the conclusion of war.

Shortly after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches of 2013, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chairman, Lalit Modi, was accused of misconduct through financial irregularities, and proceedings were initiated against him on these grounds. Modi moved to London shortly before the Enforcement Directorate began investigating these allegations. In March 2011, his passport was revoked, in an attempt to have him deported to India in order to ensure his physical presence in the trial process. However, the revocation of his passport did not invalidate his right to stay in the UK – since he entered with a passport that allowed him to remain the country.

This situation seems to be repeating itself in the case of Indian businessman and former politician, Vijay Mallya – a well known alcohol and airline magnate. Due to a report filed with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding his default on a loan of 900 crore rupees (about $134 million) from Indian state-owned bank IDBI, proceedings were initiated against him. Soon after, several ex-employees of his company, Kingfisher Airlines, which has been grounded since October 2012, aired public allegations of being denied remuneration and service benefits. Public wrath against Mallya soared further on the revelation of his offshore holdings through the Panama Papers – especially since Mallya currently has defaulted on loans worth over 9000 crore rupees (about $1.4 billion) from a consortium of 17 banks, led by the State Bank of India.

On May 18, four ships of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet set out for a two and a half month long operational deployment to the South China Sea and North Western Pacific, according to a recent press statement by the Indian Ministry of Defense.

“In a demonstration of its operational reach and commitment to India’s ‘Act East’ policy, the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral SV Bhokare, Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet, sailed out today,” the press release states.

According to the Pentagon, China has started to place multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, or MIRVs, on its DF-5B missile. It might place MIRVs on the DF-41 as well. India and Pakistan may well follow China’s lead. The advent of multiple warheads in Asia will not be as pernicious as it was during the Cold War because Beijing is unlikely to discard its nuclear doctrine of assured retaliation against cities in favor of a nuclear warfighting strategy that focuses on military targets. Nevertheless, China’s adoption of multiple-warhead missiles could have negative repercussions, depending on the scope and pace of their introduction.

One of the more headline-grabbing takeaways of the 2016 Defense Department report on Chinese military strength involves the size of the Chinese air forces, which now approach 3,000 aircraft.  This number puts China ahead of any country in the world, other than the United States and Russia. However, the numbers bear more scrutiny.

Flight Global 2016 puts overall Chinese strength at 2,942 aircraft, including the PLAAF (1977) PLA ground forces (556) and the PLAN (409). U.S. overall strength, by contrast, sits at 13,717 aircraft across the four services (including the U.S. Marine Corps). U.S. numbers are weighted less heavily towards the Air Force, as the Army and Navy (including the USMC) have nearly as many planes as the USAF.

Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party officially became Taiwan’s first female head of state on Friday. Tsai and her vice president, Chen Chien-jen, took their oaths of office in a ceremony at the Presidential Office on Friday morning before Tsai took the stage to give her inaugural address, outlining her new government’s policies and priorities for Taiwan.