This week, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung oversaw the launch of the Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance force, set up to ensure the enforcement of fishing laws in the East Sea, otherwise known as the South China Sea. As established under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the force will assist deep-sea fishermen and […]
The Economist released an interesting chart on global military spending this week showing the increased spending on military assets by countries that have been considered in the past to not be pro-Western or an ally of the United States or EU. The largest spending boom was made by China. China has openly shown the People’s […]
Japanese fighter jet pilots are getting no rest these days. In a statement released Wednesday, the Japanese Defense Ministry revealed that Japanese fighter jets were scrambled against Chinese planes a record high 415 times during the year ending in March. That number is up 36 percent from a year earlier – and is the highest […]
Lukas Birk is the author of Polaroids from the Middle Kingdom: Old and New World Visions of China, a book released in January 2014 that compiles images he took from diverse parts of contemporary China, using his father’s expired Polaroid films.
Hong Kong democracy activists gained a boost in Washington last week with a visit to the capital by Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders Martin Lee and Anson Chan. Lee is the founding chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, Chan is the former Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong, and both are former members […]
After World War II, the theory that economic integration would reduce the possibility of open conflict between two nation states was tried and was deemed successful by history when France and West Germany signed the first accords that would grow to become the European Union. When Russia recently annexed Crimea, the first response by Western […]
U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is scheduled to travel to China next week for the first time as Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, Hagel will first travel to Hawai‘i where he will meet with nine of the ten defense ministers from ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), April 1-2. (Thailand’s defense minister, Yingluck […]
After an overwhelming majority of China’s urban centers failed to meet environmental standards in 2013, Premier Li Keqiang declared a “war on pollution,” promising to improve the country’s blanketing smog endemic. In his report to parliament on Mar. 5, Premier Li Keqiang said he would fight to eliminate the air pollution problem that shrouds 95 […]
When discussing the Pacific region, a frequently mentioned concern on the part of Department of Defense and other government officials is China’s lack of transparency about its military modernization. During a presentation given at the AFCEA West Conference last month Captain Jim Fanell, head of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet Intelligence Staff, remarked , “he didn’t know […]
On March 5, China announced that it was increasing its defense budget for 2014 by 12.2 percent over the 2013 level, to $131 billion. Analysts and diplomats greeted the news with complaints that Beijing’s disclosures about its military spending are unduly opaque and often low-ball the actual defense budget by not including many weapons programs. […]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the newest player in the U.S. Defense Department’s war on counterfeit* parts. Counterfeit parts, particularly electronics, have posed a huge threat for the Department of Defense for years, threatening the integrity a wide variety of systems, from helicopters to the computers for Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude […]
As events unfold quickly in Ukraine, Russia’s increasingly close ally China is hedging its bets on an uncertain outcome. China has been quick to condemn U.S. and European involvement in Ukraine’s affairs, but has withheld judgment either for or against its ally Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propagandists have made […]
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