East Asia

Nearly two decades later, many in Hong Kong are calling for the territory to become an independent city-state along the lines of Singapore, which is probably what should have happened in the first place.

Since Xi Jinping the became supreme leader of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s foreign policy has shown greater proactivity and confidence, with more emphasis being placed on constructive engagement with international institutions.

The smallest, most ordinary scrap of information can often speak volumes about the direction in which a nation is going. A case in point from China is a Fuzhou, Fujian Province public schools memo dated Feb. 29, 2016, on the subject of “moral education” and “education for the Chinese Dream.”

In an appearance on Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command stated: “I believe China seeks hegemony in East Asia.”

This week, military tensions and international concerns reached an unprecedented level in the Korean Peninsula after the United States deployed a B-52 bomber in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test. 

The Chinese Communist Party has issued guidelines calling for tightened control of media and education in China, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency on Dec. 24. These guidelines were issued in the name of “bolstering core socialist values and pooling positive energy to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.” Included […]

Criticizing the conventional wisdom about the inevitability of China’s global ascendancy and American strategic decline is a regular preoccupation for this page.  Indeed, a recent post took aim at the prevailing notion, subscribed to by a wide-ranging group that includes Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, that Beijing can translate its vast holdings of dollar-denominated assets into policy […]

This week marks the celebration of a “Golden Week” of public holidays in China, during which millions of Chinese people take vacations, many of which will be abroad.  Prior to this holiday week, which officially began on October 1, China’s National Tourism Administration publicized a 64-page guidebook on their website, entitled “Guidebook for Civilized Tourism,” […]

Some readers may be familiar with the term “expropriation,” a political risk which the Multilateral Insurance Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a World Bank affiliated insurer, defines as “an action whereby a government seizes property of assets of the foreign investor without full compensation to the investor…also referred to as ‘ownership risk’ or nationalization.”  More astute readers […]

As territorial disputes have continued to escalate between the Chinese and Japanese over the Diaoyu/Senkaku island chain, Chinese tourists are arriving at The Eighth Route Army Culture Park in Wuxiang county, a war theme park where visitors can dress up at Chinese or Japanese troops and then shoot at each other using toy weapons.  The […]

What could be worse than living in a North Korean labor camp? Apparently, not much. This documentary centers mainly on Shin Dong-Huyk, an inmate who escaped Camp 14 and who now lives in South Korea. The tale he tells is horrific: beatings, torture, hard labor and near starvation are all the norm. He began hard […]

  While ties between China and its neighbors have long been strained by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Beijing’s policy has typically been one of self-restraint coupled with patient diplomacy.  But when the Japanese government announced the purchase of the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu in China, from private citizens late last […]