KE SHEN WRITES — Just last month, two new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Beijing. Luckily, both patients were wearing masks while they went to the hospital and took tests. Worryingly, China’s Center for Disease Control has already conducted coronavirus tests for people who work at the Haidian district…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA: BRACE FOR SECOND IMPACT?
WILLIAM LIGHTHART WRITES — For almost every elementary school, secondary school, and institution of higher learning around the world, the last 4 months have been comprised of exclusively online instruction. Schools at all levels of education are attempting to create systems so that students can return for at least partial…
Full Article BEIJING AND SEOUL: OPENING UP SCHOOLS DURING A PANDEMIC
TOM PLATE WRITES — Australia has a China problem, and it’s not clear that anyone can help it out of the box it’s in. Yes, it’s a China box: The ground underneath the Asia-Pacific is starting to shake, and the incipient foreign-policy shakeout ‘Down Under’ may well tell those of…
Full Article AUSTRALIA AND CHINA: DESTINED TO FIGHT OVER THE ‘LITTLE CHILDREN’ OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC?
MARY GRACE COSTA WRITES – The Philippines and the United States have enjoyed a decades-long marriage, but there’s trouble brewing in paradise. Many people didn’t take Philippine President Rodrigo “Rody” Roa Duterte seriously when he said he was considering cutting ties with America and cozying up to Russia and China.…
Full Article PHILIPPINES: DEAR AMERICA, IT’S OVER, SINCERELY DUTERTE
STELLA CHENG WRITES – When news broke that Taiwan had not been invited to a United Nations meeting on civil aviation last month, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen expressed strong dissatisfaction and regret. Since Tsai was inaugurated in May, relations with mainland China have grown more ambiguous, affecting the smaller country…
Full Article CHINA: MISS PRESIDENT, IT IS TIME TO GIVE THE WORLD AN ANSWER
KATIE TRINH WRITES – The aftermath of the South China Sea disputes led Vietnam to look for new partnerships with the U.S., and now – worried – China wants in on the action. This past Tuesday on September 13, Chinese Premier Li Kequiang and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc came to…
Full Article VIETNAM: SMARTLY PLAYING BOTH SIDES OF THE IDEOLOGICAL STREET
BRADLEY CAVANAGH WRITES – Think of it as a credit score for your standing with the Communist Party. And if it works as intended, it will preserve in China all that is good and right and true. By 2020, the Chinese government hopes to make use of big data to…
Full Article China: Big Data, Big Goals, & Big Problems
ANNIE LUNDGREN WRITES- Throngs of urbanites wearing face masks remind the world that Beijing still has not successfully dealt with its pollution problem. Its poor air quality has been under international scrutiny since the 2008 summer Olympics. Smog masks and full-face gas masks made headlines in October when thousands of…
Full Article CHINA: Wearing a Face Mask to Breathe #pollutionproblems(Reprinted from various newspapers in Asia) TOM PLATE WRITES: If our future is not to be dulled by the dead weight of the past, then a clear-headed prioritisation of the issues of the 21st century needs to be undertaken. This means keeping Asia – and thus China – in the…
Full Article BEIJING SUMMIT: THE WORLD’S TOUGH TASK
ANNIE LUNDGREN WRITES – The recent pro-democracy uprising in Hong Kong has highlighted Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s growing unpopularity among protesters and their supporters. Since the uprising began in September, the CE has become no fan of electoral reform in Hong Kong. Currently, chief executive candidates are nominated by a…
Full Article HONG KONG: Thumbs Down for Leung Chun-yingYVONNE EPPS WRITES — Tensions over the South China Sea reached its peak last week, but this kerfuffle between China and Vietnam is quite different than the tug of war over the Parcel Islands earlier this year. Everyone wants a piece of this pie, but who loses in the end?…
Full Article VIETNAM: The Biggest Bully of the South China SeaLAUREN CHEN WRITES – Media censorship in Hong Kong is on the rise, but it’s not just press freedom that’s at stake. Instead, say Samson Yuen and Kitty Ho of The Diplomat, at risk are the core values that have until now let the “Pearl of the Orient” shine. And it begs…
Full Article HONG KONG: One Country, One System?BRIAN CANAVE WRITES – In the wake of New York Times reporter Austin Ramzy’s unceremonious departure from Beijing, neighboring Taiwan has warmly welcomed him for a temporary stay while he continues his coverage of the mainland. Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that the government “welcomes international media enterprises and their staff” such…
Full Article TAIWAN: Leaving China? Welcome to Taiwan, RamzyAUSTIN SZABO WRITES – A misleading story about Beijing’s virtual sunrise earned more press than Friday’s report naming New Delhi the world’s most polluted big city. The Daily Mail’s inaccurate story claimed that China’s government digitally simulates the sunrise on television screens throughout Beijing since its pollution blocks natural sunlight. Major…
Full Article INDIA: Bogus Beijing Story Fogs Attention of Delhi’s Real Pollution ProblemYVONNE EPPS WRITES – Trashy fiction is an increasingly popular guilty pleasure, making one writer’s trash a corporation’s treasure. Racy Vietnamese novel Soi xich (The Chain) was sold on the Apple App Store without author and actress-singer Le Kieu Nhu’s permission, violating the copyright laws protecting the work. Although the…
Full Article VIETNAM: 50 Shades of Chains and Apple Lawsuits