Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SUBIC BAY, Philippines ― The presence here of the USS Shiloh, a cruiser laden with missiles and cannon, reminds visitors of a bygone era. It was almost 25 years ago that the U.S. Navy had to abandon Subic Bay and the U.S. Air Force evacuated Clark Air Base, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com The Xi Jinping administration’s aggressive power projection in the South China Sea could deal a frontal blow to Beijing’s “peripheral diplomacy,” which is supposed to improve the country’s relations with neighbors in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Xi leadership has redoubled reclamation efforts in several islets and rocks in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANILA — The title was alluring: “The First Asian Investigative Journalism Conference.” For two days, experts regaled journalists from all over Asia on how to track down the secret stories, the purloined funds, the hidden wealth of the high and mighty in countries and economies ranging from Pakistan […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The demonstrations in Hong Kong are at a critical stage. In the spirit of democracy movements in Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, these protesters are not giving up. Unlike demonstrators elsewhere, those in Hong Kong have come up with a defense that I never saw when protesters […]
Special to WorldTribune.com “I came through and I shall return.” — Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia after being ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt to leave Japanese-occupied Philippines in 1942. By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANILA — U.S. forces were supposed to be gone from the Philippines for good by 1991 when the U.S. pulled out of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANILA One long-running story forever dominates the front pages here. That’s corruption, bribery and cheating on a mass scale — so massive as to bear comparisons with that in big bully China. The story now is that of a few senators sending special funds to an agency charged […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Faced with the ongoing civil war in Syria, the natural disaster in the Philippines, and a spreading civil conflict in the Central African Republic, the UN humanitarian agencies are confronting a near perfect storm of political and natural disasters. Add the continuing needs from earlier trouble spots such as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com TACLOBAN, Philippines — The great game for power and influence in Asia laps up on the storm-ravaged shores of this devastated city in the form of a Chinese vessel known as the Peace Ark, with 100 doctors and nurses on board and 300 beds for patients in need […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com TACLOBAN, Philippines — The Korea Disaster Relief Team keeps a gruesome body count in the search for ever more victims of Typhoon Haiyan, aka Yolanda. “Every day we retrieve cadavers,” says Lee In-Sun, coordinator for the 42 Koreans sent here in the wake of the world’s worst storm. […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The super Typhoon Haiyan which swept across the central Philippines left a brutal legacy of death, destruction and dislocation in its wake. The category five storm which slammed into Leyte and Cebu islands directly confronted the global community with yet another gripping disaster in which 13 million people were […]