A powerful mayor and a powerful media mogul are at each other’s throats. On March 18th, Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka, labeled Tsuneo Watanabe, chairman of the giant Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper group, a “despot.” This remark came in response to the influential chairman’s description of Hashimoto’s mayoral term in the…
Category: East Asia
SOUTH KOREA: Media Given Whatever They Need for Nuclear Security Summit
The International Media Center in Seoul will open on Sunday to fully support more than 10,000 journalists from abroad and at home covering the hotly anticipated two-day Nuclear Security Summit that begins on Monday. A senior official at the Preparatory Secretariat for the summit reports that: “The International Media Center…
CHINA: Media Star Uncle Wen – the Life of the Party?
Los Angeles– What was most amazing, to Westerners at least (and perhaps especially to the Chinese people), was that his comments were broadcast live on official China TV. After all, his official observations weren’t exactly pretty. Here is the back-story: In every historical movement and moment, there are good guys…
NORTH KOREA: Students Allowed Rare Access to Internet
In isolated and government-controlled North Korea, students are being given a surprisingly liberal opportunity. According to The Korea Times, a widely circulated English-language daily newspaper in South Korea, some students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) are accessing the Internet, albeit for purely research-oriented purposes. PUST is a…
CHINA: People’s Blogs Push Authorities to Police Tourism Industry
The Chinese city of Sanya, in Hainan province, is catching heat from bloggers and critics alike due to the price-gouging occurring within its tourism market. Sanya received more than 500,000 tourists for this year’s Spring Festival. Tourists complained that they were overcharged “extremely irrationally” during the traditional Chinese holiday. Beijing-based…
JAPAN: A Grateful Prime Minister Takes Out Some Ads
Following the pair of natural disasters and resulting nuclear disaster that ravaged Japan last year, the nation is still making efforts to rebuild the affected areas. On March 9th, Yoshihiko Noda, the Prime Minister of Japan, appeared in an ad on the Washington Post’s online edition, vowing to continue…
QATAR: Journalism Students Fight Obesity—Fat Chance?
Journalism students at Northwestern University, Qatar, have created a website to combat the alarming rate of obesity plaguing the country, as well as the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The website, Sweet Epidemic (http://qatarsweetepidemic.org), aims to raise awareness of the cause of obesity, using a mix of media…
SOUTH KOREA: Korean Film of Japanese Novel Hits Home Run
South Korean director Byeon Young-joo is well-known for socially-critical films. Her latest, Helpless, is based on Japanese writer Miyuki Miyabe’s 1996 novel of the same name. The story addresses the “ills of contemporary society,” such as private loans, bankruptcy, and credit ratings – all of which are still relevant issues…
CHINA BLOG BLOTTER: Netizens Noodle Around Obama
Chinese Netizens are blocked from using Facebook. What else is new? But now there is another (albeit less popular) American social networking website that the Great Firewall does not block: Google+. Ever since February 20, 2012, the Chinese government lifted its censorship of Google+. Ever since, Chinese Netizens have been…
CHINA: Newspaper’s Spin on Policy Unconvincing
Last month the United Nation Security Council took up a resolution that called for the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to step down. As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, China voted against it, along with Russia. China remains adamant in its decision despite the outcry from…
SOUTH KOREA: Journalists War on Management Suck-Ups
Journalists from the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), South Korea’s largest television network, are now on strike, joining news reporters from Munhwa Broadcasting System (MBC) who began their strike about a month ago. About 650 KBS staff members, including 250 reporters, joined the strike as part of a widening protest for journalistic reform. KBS…
NORTH KOREA: A Rare View of NK Public Opinion Thanks to Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) reported from Pyongyang on the recent announcement of the United States and North Korean agreement to freeze North Korea’s nuclear activities in exchange for much needed food aid. Washington sees this as a promising first step towards discussing disarmament; yet, according to the AP, “rare interviews”…
THE TWO KOREAS: The Reaction to Pyongyang’s Overture (an Update)
The Western news media – and especially The Economist Magazine of London – have been almost incautiously optimistic about recent diplomatic developments coming out of North Korea. But the media in South Korea has been rather cautious about Pyongyang’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow…
BREAKTHROUGH IN NORTH KOREA?
The news media in South Korea is properly cautious about North Korea’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow international inspectors onto suspected sites, and to halt long-range missile tests. Since 1994, endlessly back and forth across the Korean Peninsula, after all, negotiations of some sort over the nuclear issue have been on-going or going off on tangents — or (most often) going nowhere.
Why China resists Western intervention in Syria
LOS ANGELES — Intellectual precision is especially vital in times of geopolitical passion. The full totality of evil of the Syrian government is now on display for the entire world to see. The brutality of President Bashar Assad is beyond immense. And so the blame game has begun. The obvious…
WE ASK / THEY ANSWER: Getting to the Bottom of the Top Secrets
Recently I attended a presentation at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute about the play Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which last year debuted in China. Afterward, I had an opportunity to talk with Geoffrey Cowan, the distinguished co–author of the play (along with the late…