ASSOCIATE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — Just last week, Chinese Sukhoi-30 advanced fighter jets briefly entered Taiwan’s airspace. It happened as Taiwan announced that its largest annual live-fire drill would be held next month. At the same time, news about British ministers considering plans to support Taiwan were…
Full Article ANGLO-CHINESE RELATIONS: WHY IS RAPPROCHEMENT UNLIKELY?
SARA SHARPE WRITES — Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, countries have been scrambling to create effective and realistic economic stimulus packages. China has promised a year-long fiscal stimulus package amounting to 3.6 trillion yuan ($500 billion USD) in an attempt to continue its strong rate of economic growth,…
Full Article CHINA: UNCERTAIN COMMITMENT TO COVID-19 STIMULUS PACKAGE
COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES – The decline of the coherence and acumen of American foreign policy would appear to present Beijing with the potential for a century of anything and everything but humiliation. To be sure, historically, the U.S. has demonstrated Olympian bounce-back ability from near-death experiences (from bad economies…
Full Article DEAR BEIJING: IS THIS THE BEST YOU CAN DO?
From News Service Reports — No sooner had after China signaled it would impose new national-security laws on Hong Kong than markets throughout the world trembled. By early afternoon Friday in Hong Kong (22 May), the Hang Seng Index had lost 5.6%, with property, financial and infrastructure stocks retreating between…
Full Article HONG-KONG-WATCH: SHAKEN MARKETS
JOANNE PANG WRITES FROM HONG KONG CHINA – Ah, you ask about the lovely coronavirus pandemic that has made millennials insanely and basically harmlessly obsessed with TikTok to a whole other level? Hong Kong seems to tell a different tale. As COVID-19 began to strike the West (UK and US),…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: CARRIE LAM RIGHTLY CRACKS DOWN ON THE MERRY MERETRICIOUS MILLENNIALS
From Asia Media International in Los Angeles — Congratulations, Hong Kong! Under conditions of the greatest stress, you have pulled off a mainly spotless and brilliant territory-wide election whose results resonate worldwide. Clean and clear elections are not that easy to pull off. (We in the U.S. are learning more…
Full Article CONGRATULATIONS HONG KONG!
DIANA CASTILLO WRITES- Just to bring us all up to date: In Hong Kong, an extradition bill was introduced in April that could have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, where they could have faced unfair trials and been subjected to violence. In addition, the extradition bill…
Full Article HONG KONG ON CENTER STAGE: WHY SO MUCH OF THE WORLD IS LOOKING IN
ASIA MEDIA WRITES – The following succinct commentary was solicited by the editors of USA Today and provided by our founder and president, Prof Tom Plate. It was published in this well-known national newspaper on Thursday 15-16 August. Please see: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/08/15/donald-trump-right-china-over-hong-kong-editorials-debates/2024883001/ TEXT By Tom Plate The notion that the U.S. should…
Full Article Hong Kong: QUICK COMMENTARY ON THE BEST WAY FOR U.S. TO HELP CHINA – IN ‘USA TODAY’
TOM PLATE WRITES — How should citizens react when Big Government does a bad thing that screams out for correction? One approach is to slip into denial and imagine nothing at all happened, because leaders are apt to err, so the best thing for your mental health is to look…
Full Article HONG KONG: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN BIG GOVERNMENT MAKES A BIG MISTAKE?
YI NING WONG WRITES — The month of May marks Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with team members from a recent animation about street foods, culture, and family in Hong Kong: Front of the House. Director Sum Yi “Ashley” Ma and Sound Director…
Full Article Film: An Ode to Hong Kong Street Food and Family
TOM PLATE WRITES – In coming months look for broad gripes and bright anti-red stars over the land of the free, not to mention the home of the brave. The “Committee on the Present Danger: China” – cliché bombs bursting in the media air – begins its anti-communist show in the…
Full Article HONG KONG: SO WHEN WILL CHINA’S ‘WORLD DOMINATION TOUR’ COMMENCE?
NICOLE ALAVERDIAN WRITES– As the world scrambles to adopt more environmentally friendly practices, there is one overlooked culprit of climate change: animal agriculture. Despite a recent wave of vegetarian, vegan and plant-based food offerings in the Asian-Pacific, a study by the Food Service Consultants Society predicts that in Asia “the…
Full Article ENVIRONMENT: Is it possible for the Asian Pacific to mend its carnivorous appetite?
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” – Charlemagne ANAS ALZAHRANI WRITES — When non-native English speakers decide to learn English in a different country, the first locations that come to mind are the U.S and England, where English is the first language. Command over the English…
Full Article You Might Want to Head to Asia to Learn English
YI NING WONG writes – Hong Kong’s infamous city Lan Kwai Fong is well known for manifesting the city’s bustling spirit into a unique nightlife culture. Popular bars and clubs are only a few feet away from each other, attracting endless crowds and earning the city a reputation as Hong…
Full Article HONG KONG: EXPLORING THE EMERGING DRAG SCENE IN HONG KONG
KATELYNN BARKLEY WRITES — To protest or not to protest? In Hong Kong, this has become a loaded question. On August 17, Hong Kong’s high court sentenced the pro-democratic, Umbrella Movement leaders, Alex Chow, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong, to several months in jail. The Chinese media has branded the…
Full Article HONG KONG: THE SHAKY ROAD TO PRESERVING DEMOCRACY