COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES – Geopolitical commentary can be invaluable, but not all analyses return good payback for your time and attention. The ‘quick-on-the draw’ stuff can lack perspective and flip and flop in the wind; even those drawn from deeper wells can take too long to surface. Then there’s…
Full Article SINGAPORE: A VERY ‘VIP’ VOICE FROM ASIA
TOM PLATE WRITES – Ever since my initial meeting with Lee Kuan Yew a quarter century ago, Singapore remained in my mind as special. By the time of the brilliant founding prime minister’s passing at 91 in 2015, that assessment was not so novel and was going global; even in…
Full Article SINGAPORE: CALIBRATING A ROLE BETWEEN CHINA AND THE U.S.
TOM PLATE WRITES — The agony in Afghanistan makes for many sorrows. Beyond the scenes of chaos at Kabul airport is the unseen anguish of all those US veterans back home who are dealing with various psychological and physical traumas and are now especially unproud of their country; of families…
Full Article AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND: CHINA MUST LEARN FROM US HUBRIS AND BLUNDERS
FROM THE WORLDPOST (https://www.berggruen.org/the-worldpost/) — This week, the Berggruen Institute worked with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who led the G20 response to the 2007-8 financial crisis, and other members of our 21st Century Council to gather the signatures of 165 prominent figures from around the world — including 92…
Full Article THE CRISIS: HOW TO FILL THE VACUUM OF GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
Marshall Cavendish Asia International has announced 14 July as the official publication date, in Asia, for ‘Yo-Yo Diplomacy: American Columnist Tom Plate Tracks the Ups-and-Downs of the China-U.S. Relationship.” Author Plate is Loyola Marymount University’s Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies and is founder and editor in chief of…
Full Article SINGAPORE: NEW BOOK ON CHINA BY PROF PLATE SLATED FOR MID-JULY PUBLICATION IN ASIA
TOM PLATE WRITES (courtesy of the South China Morning Post): China, it seems, cannot win for losing. Exports-predator China is always ‘beating us’, bombastic billionaire businessman Donald Trump declaimed yet again on the campaign trail. But his timing on this point could have been better as last week was not…
Full Article HONG KONG: ‘We Are Now in the Soup Together’STEPHANIE GARCIA WRITES – First a South American becomes the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and now he wants to bring an Asian onto his Council for the Economy? Oh, how times have changed! In all seriousness, we couldn’t be happier for George Yeo, who was just appointed as…
Full Article SINGAPORE: George Yeo Goes to the VaticanTOM PLATE WRITES IN HIS SYNDICATED COLUMN APPEARING IN THE JAPAN TIMES (Tokyo) – Like so many people around the world, I was totally blown away not only by Olympic skater Kim Yuna’s performance on the ice in Sochi, but even more so by her cool and classy performance off…
Full Article THE PLATE COLUMN: Skating on Thin Ice