The year 2012 was for Beijing a year to display its dragon-like qualities of authority, dignity, and honor. The dragon is also the symbol of the emperor, so it may have been auspicious for a new leader to be chosen during November’s meeting of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. While […]
A post earlier this month noted how well-connected state-owned enterprises in China were stymieing key economic reforms advocated by outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao and questioned whether the country’s new leader, Xi Jinping, would do any better given that the country’s 145,000 state-run companies are a gold mine of wealth and privilege for rent-seeking Communist Party […]
photo: Suria In one of the biggest landslides in Japan’s electoral history, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Shinzo Abe surged back to power in Japan’s general election last Sunday – just three years after a devastating defeat. The LDP and its ally, the New Komeito Party (NKP), won a majority with control of […]
Throughout the years, I have been critic of the Aquino’s, a powerful family which has had significant influence in Filipino politics dating all the way back to the Malolos Congress at the turn of the century. They are a family which is not short on drama, but always seems to look indefatigable and benevolent when […]
A maladroit visit to New Delhi is a harbinger of things to come The headline visit to India this past weekend by Pakistan’s de-facto interior minister, Rehman Malik, was supposed to celebrate the latest milestone in the détente process that has picked up speed between the two countries over the last year and a half. Instead, […]
Whether he is the new Deng Xiaoping will say much about the contours of the evolving global order My post earlier this week argued that China’s long-term prospects are more uncertain than the conventional wisdom holds. The country’s new leader, Xi Jinping, is raising hopes that he is the man to tackle the daunting array of […]
I was fortunate to have spent the past year working in Phnom Penh. Cambodia is a raw, untamed land with beautiful sights but also shocking poverty. I’m no stranger to living in the region but, for my money, there is nothing more amazing in the world than driving through the rural countryside of Southeast Asia […]
“Much of the future of the world in the 21st Century will depend on how well China and the United States sustain growth in our own economies, manage our relationship with one another, and together address challenges facing the global economy.” These words were spoken last week by Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and […]
Two moves by Chinese authorities over the past few weeks have raised concerns amongst China’s neighbors. In late November, China issued a new passport that includes a nine-dashed line incorporating most of the South China Sea — the same lines that are depicted on many official Chinese maps. This move has drawn strong condemnation from […]
“One Vision, One Identity, One Community.” That is the motto of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Very utopian. Some might say naïve. And yet this regional organization has, up until this year, always spoken in one voice with member states that always seemed to prize cooperation. But this quixotic approach to regional relations is […]
Today marks the start of the East Asia Summit, an annual forum where the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their counterparts from eight other nations, including China and the U.S., meet to discuss security and economic concerns. One issue which may take center stage concerns conflicting claims over the […]
U.S. President Barack Obama is returning to Asia for his first overseas trip since winning re-election. He will attend, for the second consecutive year, the East Asia Summit which is viewed by the U.S. as the emerging eminent multilateral forum for regional leaders from 17 other states to discuss salient strategic and security issues. The […]
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