Top Asian News 4:56 a.m. GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China says any change in U.S. policy favoring formal recognition of Taiwan will "seriously" damage peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and undermine relations between Beijing and Washington. The comments from the spokesman for the Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office Wednesday follow President-elect Donald Trump's remarks over the weekend that he didn't feel "bound by a one-China policy" unless the U.S. could gain benefits from China in trade and other areas. Under the one-China policy, the U.S. recognizes Beijing as China's government and maintains only unofficial relations with Taiwan, which broke from the Chinese mainland in 1949. Spokesman An Fengshan said breaching the one-China principle "will seriously affect peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

BEIJING (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's questioning of long-established U.S. policy toward Taiwan is sparking a growing backlash in China and warnings about a potentially dangerous disruption in relations between the world's two largest economies. Trump broke diplomatic precedent by talking on the phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Dec. 2. Then, this past weekend, he said he might use America's recognition of Beijing as leverage for gaining advantages in trade and other areas. That is placing him perilously close to touching on China's bottom line that brooks no formal recognition of Taiwan or challenge to its claim to sovereignty over the island.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The minority Christian governor of Indonesia's capital sobbed in court Tuesday on the first day of his blasphemy trial as he recalled the role of Muslim godparents in his childhood and said he would never intentionally insult Islam. The national upheaval over the governor's alleged blasphemy has challenged Indonesia's reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam, shaken the government and exposed religious and racial fault lines in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Protests against Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, led by hard-liners and which drew hundreds of thousands of people, have kept Jakarta, the capital, on edge in the past six weeks.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's conservative ruling party is on the verge of a split following President Park Geun-hye's parliamentary impeachment last week. Kim Moo-sung, leader of anti-Park lawmakers in the Saenuri Party, on Tuesday called Park loyalists her "political slaves" in an escalation of harsh rhetoric between rival factions in the largest political party in South Korea. He told a televised conference that he and fellow lawmakers are considering leaving the party to create a new political group. The feuding has intensified after dozens of Saenuri Party lawmakers aligned with a coalition of liberal opposition lawmakers to impeach Park on Friday because of a scandal involving her longtime, shadowy confidante.

SYDNEY (AP) — Sydney residents sweltered through the city's second hottest night on record and its hottest December night in 148 years, with many cooling off at beaches long after dark. A minimum of 27.1 degrees Celsius (80.8 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in Australia's largest city early Wednesday, Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jordan Notara said. The only hotter overnight minimum temperature recorded in this city of 5 million people was 27.6 degrees Celsius (81.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Feb. 6, 2011. The hottest December minimum nighttime temperature on record had been Christmas Day in 1868, when the temperature dipped to 26.3 degrees Celsius (79.3 degrees Fahrenheit).

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-allied Asian ambassadors on Tuesday urged President-elect Donald Trump to reconsider his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and keep the U.S. engaged in Asia. Ambassadors from Australia, South Korean and Singapore made the appeal at a Washington think tank. The Obama administration championed the trade pact which was signed by 12 nations in February but has run into a wall of congressional and public opposition. Trump has vowed to withdraw from TPP on his first day in office, calling it a "disaster" for American jobs. Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey said, "America has to engage with Asia if it is going to be great," because that's where most global economic growth is happening.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A humble barbequed sausage on a slice of bread sold at polling booths around Australia has been picked as the country's official word of the year — "democracy sausage." Despite being two words, Australian National Dictionary Center director Amanda Laugesen said on Wednesday that democracy sausage qualified as Australia's word for 2016 because it was essentially a compound word. The term was first recorded in 2012 to describe the ubiquitous beef sausage sandwiches served with onions, ketchup, barbeque sauce or mustard, which are sold at fundraising stalls outside polling booths. But it gathered momentum in 2016 when Australia had an extraordinarily long two-month federal election campaign that was so close that the result was not known for days.

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. military Osprey aircraft has crash-landed off Japan's southern island of Okinawa, but its five crewmembers were safely rescued. The U.S. Marine Corps. said Wednesday that an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft landed in shallow water off Okinawa's east coast late Tuesday. They said in a statement that the crewmembers were airlifted to a Navy hospital at the Kadena Air Base for treatment. Japanese defense officials said two of them sustained injuries that were not life-threatening. It also comes one week after a Marine Corps pilot died after his F/A-18 fighter jet crashed off western Japan. The crash just off Nago City triggered protests on Okinawa, where anti-U.S.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin tried a bit of dog diplomacy ahead of his trip to Japan, and then gave a glimmer of hope that a 70-year territorial dispute with Tokyo could be resolved. Japanese journalists met with Putin at the Kremlin, days before Putin heads to Tokyo. The interview began with the Russian leader showing off the Akita given to him by Japan in 2012. Putin fed the massive dog, called Yume, which was just a puppy when she came to Russia. Now, the canine is almost as big as Putin when she stands up on her hind legs to receive a treat from her master.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Top nuclear envoys from South Korea, the United States and Japan pledged Tuesday to implement new sanctions against North Korea, including capping the country's coal exports to choke off cash flowing into its nuclear weapons program. After meeting in Seoul, the envoys said the countries agreed to maintain an around-the-clock information sharing system to monitor how sanctions are working. Responding to North Korea's nuclear and missile tests this year, the United Nations Security Council recently voted to tighten sanctions by limiting the country's coal exports, one of its major sources of foreign currency. The effectiveness of the sanctions is dependent on the commitment of China, North Korea's most important ally and its biggest buyer of coal.