CHARLES E. MORRISON WRITES – Predictions of the outcomes of the Trump-Xi Jinping meeting in Florida range from a looming disaster to a rosy new beginning. Of course, both leaders will claim success as a bad meeting helps neither, but true success is measured in the longer-term against expectations. These need…
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR CHUNG-IN MOON WRITES — Unsettling shadows descended on the Korean Peninsula at the end of 2016. A security threat on top of domestic troubles with the South Korean president under impeachment proceedings, politics swept up in turmoil, candlelight vigils likely to stretch into next year, and depressing economic…
THE JAPAN TIMES IN TOKYO WRITES: A half-Indian beauty queen with an elephant trainer’s license was crowned Miss Japan on Monday, striking a fresh blow for racial equality. Priyanka Yoshikawa’s tearful victory comes a year after Ariana Miyamoto faced an ugly backlash for becoming the first black woman to represent…
From Ho Chi Minh City, Well-Known Vietnamese lawyer Nguyen Ba Son Writes – On July 12, 2016, the arbitral tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration case instituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) between the Philippines and China handed out…
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL WRITES — A visit by the UN Secretary General is always a big event in Los Angeles. Arriving after world-wind visits to various international trouble spots, Mr and Mrs Ban Ki-moon made appearances at the home of TV legend Normal Lear (lunch Wednesday, 10 Aug.) and producer-director Brett…
GUEST LULLY MIURA WRITES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO – Koike Yuriko became the first female governor of Tokyo in a surprise landslide earlier this month. The election was held following a money scandal involving the former governor. While Koike’s victory is a step forward for women in Japan, it could…
FORMER BRITISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER JOHN PRESCOTT WRITES – On Wednesday [6 July] we finally saw the Chilcot Report [the official U.K. inquiry into the origins of the British involvement in the Iraq war led by the U.S. government of George W. Bush Jr]. It was a damning indictment of…
Editor’s Note: On the subject of South China Sea, everyone agrees that while a lot has been written on it, most will also agree the legitimacy of China’s claim has not been well articulated. And so we offer this perspective from Beijing by Madam Fu Ying, who is chair of…
Writes Peter Gordon in the recent issue of The Asian Review of Books, in his review of David Moser’s A Billion Voices: China’s Search for a Common Language — In a recent piece in the New Yorker, Ted Chiang wrote: “I never learned anything in the Saturday-morning Chinese school I…
Writes Kim Ji-soo of the Korea Times (courtesy of the Korea Times) – Perhaps only someone of Professor Moon Chung-in’s stature can deliver a lecture entitled “Why I’ve Failed as a Professor.” On Tuesday, the 65-year-old political science professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and political brain during the Kim…
From CHINA DAILY in Beijing – Under an ambitious agreement, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Review newspapers (Fairfax Media) will issue an eight-page English-language edition of “China Watch” once a month starting this month. “In the process of international communication, China Daily has been forging alliance…
Excerpted courtesy of the South China Morning Post — Visiting state leader , from Beijing, warned everyone would have to pay the price if Hong Kong became chaotic, in a 20-minute speech to more than 220 representatives from various sectors at the government headquarters this morning. “We are all in the…
BY A ‘CHINA DAILY’ STAFF WRITER FROM BEIJING — Are you a fan of Sherlock Holmes? Do you think the Arthur Conan Doyle-created character can take on Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency operative who exposed Washington’s controversial global surveillance program? If “yes”, how about a cat-and-mouse game…
