Last Thursday, December 19, The Chinese government renewed press accreditation for all Bloomberg News journalists and some New York Times journalists reporting from China. Prior to Thursday, about 24 New York Times and Bloomberg foreign correspondents were in fear of being expelled from China. Chinese authorities were withholding from issuing resident journalist visas for the […]
China presumes “great power” status for itself equal to the United States. What has China done recently to demonstrate its readiness for such a role? It has raged incoherently at Japan for a modest increase in military spending and accused a video game of “cultural aggression” against China. In response to China’s saber-rattling in the […]
Chinese government censorship is a core concern for democracy promotion efforts in China. All media in China, including newspapers, television, and the internet, are strictly controlled by the Chinese government for the very purpose of preventing democracy promotion. There may be little that democracy advocates can do to challenge the government’s control over traditional domestic […]
Our favorite long reads from around the web and blog posts from the past week.
On Monday, December 16, the American Studies Association voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Members of the ASA voted by a ratio of more than two to one to endorse the boycott in online balloting that concluded Sunday night, the group said. The election was a response to the ASA National Council’s announcement on December […]
The Obama administration has announced that it will nominate outgoing Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) to replace Gary Locke as the new U.S. ambassador to China. Baucus is seen as a strong U.S. hand in Beijing, The New York Times observes, owing to his efforts to reduce trade barriers between China and the United States, and […]
This past weekend, China became the third country to land a spacecraft intact on the moon. The unmanned Chang’e-3 probe subsequently deployed a robot rover that will explore the lunar surface for the next three months, while the landing vehicle will conduct scientific experiments for the coming year. Beijing’s accomplishment is notable since it was […]
During his first visit to Vietnam this Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. will contribute $35 million to southeast Asian nations to strengthen their maritime security. $18 million of the sum will go to Vietnam to “enhance capacity of coastal patrol” which includes buying five patrol-boats for the coastguard. Secretary Kerry […]
The phrase “money laundering” conjures images of suitcases crammed with $100 bills being snuck across the border by a drug cartel courier, and funds being wired into and out of bank accounts in a dizzying series of globe-circling transactions. Those are apt examples of two of the three main methods of scrubbing clean illicit funds […]
When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite during the Cold War it was a shocking wake-up call for the U.S., alarming both policy-makers and the public and sparking what came to be known and the Space Race. Of course, the U.S. went on to win that particular race, still having the distinction of being […]
As detailed in my previous post on this topic, some two dozen U.S. journalists currently face expulsion from China for investigative reporting on the personal wealth and financial ties of top Chinese government officials. This follows a pattern of harassment including the expulsion of at least three American journalists since 2012 for reporting critical of […]
This week, in the midst of U.S.-brokered peace talks between the two parties, Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s Defense Minister, announced that Israel has no partner for peace amongst the Palestinians. While this is not an original argument — it has been in circulation for decades — it is a powerful one. Ya’alon isn’t just a member […]
Nobody doubts that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is an important country in the world. Various observers cite different reasons, approvingly and disapprovingly. First of all, as a major producer of oil, the Kingdom has accumulated a considerable wealth that has provided decent essential services for its citizens at home and bought loyalty throughout […]
The Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 Foreign Policy Foreign Policy compiles and analyzes this year’s 100 most influential thinkers, organizing them into easy-to-understand categories in a visually delightful must-read. Was Hillary Clinton a Good Secretary of State? By Susan B. Glasser Politico Magazine Hillary Clinton has variously been lauded as the most consequential Secretary of State […]
Yesterday, the government of Bangladesh, whatever that is now, executed Abdul Qader Mollah, a leader of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Party. He was one of those elderly Islamists politicos long ago and recently accused of igniting and engineering a Counter-Revolution in East Pakistan by supporting the Pakistani military’s murderous assault against East Pakistan’s (now Bangladesh’s) […]