BALLOON FADE-OUT: LATIN AMERICA KEEPS ITS COOL
BADER ALBANWAN WRITES – Early last month the Colombian Air Force detected a suspected Chinese spy balloon floating approximately 55,000 feet in its airspace. Unlike the spy balloon in the U.S., which provoked the Biden administration to order an F-22 Raptor from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, to be shot…
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KOREAN PENINSULA CONTROVERSY: NO NUKES IN THE SOUTH, PLEASE!
Guest Commentary by Moon Chung-in, professor emeritus at Yonsei University – After Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol broached the possibility of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons in January, discussion of that possibility has been picking up intensity. According to the results of a poll of 1,000 people…
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SOUTH KOREA: K-POP TAKES CENTER STAGE IN FASHION
ALI ZANE WRITES – With K-pop now a global presence, more and more luxury fashion brands have been collaborating with its idols. A pivotal moment: Chanel’s 2015 Paris fashion show, where K-pop idol and fashion trailblazer G-Dragon sat front row. He was the first Asian star to be invited. A…
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CHINA: WAS THE “ZERO COVID” POLICY 100% WRONG?
HUNTER MYERS WRITES – With its severe Covid control administration, did Beijing blunder – or show the way toward a viable epidemic control option for the future? China’s experience with Covid Zero policy, and its subsequent, rather sudden lifting, provides valuable insights for other countries. It shows the importance of…
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JAPAN: ALL’S (NOT) FAIR IN WAR
JARED D’AGOSTINO WRITES – For the first time in five years, on February 7, 2023, Japan used the words “illegal occupation” when describing Russia’s presence on the Kurile Islands. This is not surprising; Japanese and Russian relations have deteriorated since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th last…
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JAPAN: AS BIRTHRATES DROP, CONCERN RISES
HAMAD ALHADBH WRITES – “Japan is on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” said Fumio Kishida, Japan’s Prime Minister, in a January address to Parliament. As Japan’s birthrate continues to plummet to historic lows, the nation’s new government has concerns about the country’s future economic…
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LOS ANGELES: SAVING THE OCEAN IN STYLE
KAYA RODRIGUES WRITES – While walking along the beaches in Los Angeles county, observing trash on the shorelines and hearing news stories of garbage patches – not-so-lovingly nick-named ‘trash islands’ – such as the 2.41 million ton Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California, it is hard not to…
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JAPAN: A MORE WOKE COUNTRY?
FARRAH PADILLA WRITES – This spring in Japan, the pink and red cherry blossoms will flood streets, neighborhoods, lawns, and the sky. These colors never fail to amaze locals and tourists alike; but what about orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple? These colors are less common, but less so this year,…
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JAPAN: WILL A NEW BOJ GOVERNOR LAUNCH A NEW PLAN?
SAM BECK WRITES – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has named a new potential Governor of the world-renowned Bank of Japan, MIT Ph.D and former BOJ board member Kazuo Ueda. Dilemmas that faced incumbent Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, whose decade-long term ends in April, led to the announcement on February 14.…
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CHINA: DOES BEIJING OWE CHINESE WOMEN ONE COLOSSAL APOLOGY?
KYLIE CLIFTON WRITES – It’s not easy to change the course of history. China has been struggling to reverse its long-held one-child policy since 2015, when it announced that families could have two children. Then, in response to falling birth rates, policy was further loosened; in 2021 a Chinese state…
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MALAYSIA: TRACKING CHINESE VESSELS BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT
NASER ALMESHARI WRITES – The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) has enhanced the effectiveness of its potentially potent ‘shadowing’ approach, thanks to absorbing the clever procedures of the Indonesian coast guard. What is shadowing? It’s a technique to repel foreign intruders entering the waters of the South China Sea by using…
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JAPAN: IS IT WASTING ITS INTERNATIONAL IMAGE?
MICHELLE CHANG WRITES – March 11 will mark the twelfth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which occurred after Japan was hit with a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami. This also marks the year that Japan plans to release treated wastewater from the nuclear plant—which has Japanese citizens, not to…
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NEW ZEALAND: IS ITS NEW PRIME MINISTER UP TO IT?
JACOB VILLEGAS WRITES – New Zealand has a new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, but who exactly is he? Following the unfortunate resignation of the former Prime Minster, Jacinda Ardern in mid-January, Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand’s 41st Prime Minister on January 25th. Although Hipkins is newly installed, he…
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SOUTH KOREA: DOWN AND OUT WITH THE OLD?
IREH KIM WRITES – While South Korea has gained great popularity internationally through K-pop, media, and technology, the country faces a severe problem domestically: it has the highest suicide rate of any developed nation. Statista reports that 13 thousand people took their own lives in 2021, averaging 26 deaths for…
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CHINA: ‘HELLO HONG KONG’ – WE SO LOVE TOURISTS
ANYA CHINAPPI WRITES – On Thursday, February 2, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-Chiu announced a new tourism campaign called “Hello Hong Kong,” designed to encourage visitors and overseas residents back to the island following the Covid-19 shutdown. The campaign features over 500,000 free plane tickets, special events, and…
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SOUTH KOREA: WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG?
MADELINE MICHEL WRITES- Since the signing of both the 2002 Land Partnership Plan and the 2004 Yongsan Relocation Plan, the process of returning the land of the U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan-Casey, located in Seoul, to the Republic of Korea has been in motion. Yet the transition has been slow and…
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