SIPRI’s report in March 2010 highlighted China’s growing desire to develop its Arctic capabilities. Yet China is also collaborating with other countries to possibly expand its role in the Arctic. Two of those countries are North Korea and Iceland, neither of which have Arctic coastlines, but which are far enough north to give China greater […]
China’s ratcheting up their state secrets laws. That’s never a good sign. NYT article. There is an amusingly awful definition of state secrets being promulgated: they are “information that, if disclosed, would damage China’s security or interests in political, economic, defense and other realms.” Presumably the story that the Chinese had 14 year olds on their […]
By Sarah Rose Ch. 4: Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 Robert Fortune was patient as the coolie attended to his new coif. A small blue and white tea bowl sat nearby on a dusty crate, and swirling its sediment of leaves, Fortune spilled the cooling liquid out onto the dirty deck. Floors were the place […]
Indonesia: Last week, this blog looked at the reality of Indonesia’s capacity to aid the United States in the Islamic world. Ahead of Obama’s June visit to the archipelago, it is also valuable to consider how the Indonesian – American relationship is viewed on the Indonesian street. Recently, some right wing Muslim groups have joined […]
The US isn’t the only target of Chinese hackers that-of-course-aren’t-government-sponsored-though-the-PLA-does-fund-hacking-research-in-their-school groups. That other rising Asian great power – the one that fought a couple of wars with China and is harboring their archnemisis – got pwned in a bad way. The NY Times has a story on it that makes for interesting reading. At the […]
At the press conference on 14 March 2010, immediately after the close of the National People’s Congress annual session (NPC, China’s legislature and highest state body), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed Hong Kong. The speech came in the wake of a stormy political debate over the slow progress towards universal suffrage that has seen clashes […]
CAFTA: This site recently discussed the growing angst of citizens in several Southeast Asian nations in regard to CAFTA. Asia Times is currently running an article addressing some specific areas of contention in detail. Touted as the world’s biggest free-trade area, CAFTA will bring together 1.7 million consumers with a combined gross domestic product of […]
Thailand: Since the weekend, 120,000 to 250,000 Red Shirts have concentrated on Bangkok, demanding that Thai PM Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call for new elections, which they believe will usher the opposition into a majority, and hopefully signal the return of ousted and exiled Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra. By Monday, the Red Shirts had succeeded […]
If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were to make a list of countries that he loves right now, I would imagine his list would be very similar to this: 5. Iraq: For stealing the spotlight away from Iran. This week, Iran and its nuclear program took the backseat as the American policy makers watched the Iraqi […]
China has eight non-communist parties under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). What at first seems like an oddity under an one-party system is not so once we understand the reality of the relationship between the CCP and these parties. Open political debates are strictly constrained in China. The CCP maintains its dominance […]
Indonesia: As an update to the growing backlash in SE Asia over the China-ASEAN FTA, the Berita Jakarta is already blaming the FTA on a decline in exports from Jakarta: It can be seen from the decline in the city’s export value by 4.80 percent or US$ 2.828 billion in January this year, from that […]
Vietnam: The Vietnamese government is trying to gather international support to bolster itself in it’s long-standing territorial disputes with China over the Paracel Islands. China has held military control over the majority of the islands for 30 years, and this year has announced its desire to set up tourism facilities in the archipelago. In response, […]
Much of this deal is about Brazil’s own domestic market, but it is also proof of the biofuel bonanza as both Cosan and Shell prepare for a global market in ethanol.
This blog previously commented on rising opposition to and grumbling over the China – ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in Southeast Asia, which went into effect on 90 percent of products, on January 1, 2010 Times Magazine Online has an article concerning more of the downsides of the FTA. For example, Indonesian Trade Minister, Mari […]
News of the disaster in Haiti drowned out most other concerns last week but the earthquake was not the only newsworthy thing that happened in the world. Earlier the same day as the earthquake, Google posted a surprising message on its official company blog that raised the possibility the search engine giant may leave the […]