Special to WorldTribune.com Vietnam’s coast guard seized a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea on April 2, Vietnamese state media said. An April 4 report by Thanh Nien News said the crew of the vessel “admitted that they had entered deep [into] Vietnamese waters to refuel several other Chinese boats which were fishing illegally […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Asian Pacific nations are spending big on “long overdue” military upgrades to counter the threat posed by China, according to a IHS Jane’s report. In 2015, nine of the 20 fastest-growing defense budgets were in the Asian Pacific, the report said. By 2020, total military spending in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Satellite images show China has deployed the advanced HQ-9 surface-to-air missile system to a disputed island in the South China Sea. Taiwanese and U.S. officials confirmed that batteries of the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile launchers were set up on Woody Island in the Paracels chain, according to a report by Reuters. China, Taiwan […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com President Park Geun-Hye is pursuing a fight-talk strategy. On Monday, South Korean gunners staged a live-fire exercise in waters well within hearing range of North Korea’s southwestern coast. Next, North and South Korean negotiators were planning to meet at Panmunjom. The contrast between military drills and diplomacy suggests […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― You know how forgotten is the Korean War when you see a documentary about the young correspondents who battled U.S. officialdom in the early years of the Vietnam War and hear comparisons between Vietnam and World War II, Vietnam and Iraq ― and not one word […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Uwe Siemon-Netto The flood of Middle Eastern refugees into Europe exposes a fatal flaw of the current democratic system in the United States. The defect is the innate inability of the fast-paced American system to bring a long-drawn-out war against an unconventional enemy to a victorious conclusion. As Adelbert Weinstein, the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Here’s a twist on the shifting course of the recent military history of the region. The Philippines and Vietnam are about to become “strategic partners” in common cause against, yes, the Chinese. For those who may have forgotten, the U.S., having ruled the Philippines for nearly half a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The temptation to slash defense spending is overwhelming. Why worry about huge standing forces overseas when they’re not deployed much except on military exercises and war games that are repetitious and boring? Easy to say, but the U.S. had only 500 advisers in South Korea when the North […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Fights between reporters and editors are classic. Reporters don’t trust editors, and editors don’t trust reporters. That little observation is by way of commenting on what has to be about the worst reporter-editor rift in the history of journalism. That’s the betrayal of the Canadian correspondent who parachuted […]
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, […]