Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The imminent opening of a free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai has threatened the status of the southern province of Guangdong as a pacesetter for market-style economic reforms. According to official media, the Shanghai FTZ – which will be located in the Pudong district of the metropolis – […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The high-profile detention last week of Jiang Jiemin, former president of one of China’s largest state-owned conglomerates, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), means that President Xi Jinping is really serious about fighting corruption. There is, however, no evidence that the crackdown on the monkey businesses of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The high-profile exposure of alleged corruption practices by the China division of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) indicates that Beijing’s anti-graft campaign has entered a new level. That official mouthpieces such as CCTV, People’s Daily and Global Times have come out with bitter attacks against GSK, however, suggests that […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The usually deferential official Chinese media has characterized Premier Li Keqiang performance during his just-completed four-nation visit as “Li-style diplomacy.” The last leg of Li’s first overseas trip as head of government – a mere two-day stopover in Berlin – has demonstrated the hard edge of enhanced hard-power […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Premier Li Keqiang’s just-completed trip to India has revealed a new thinking in Chinese diplomacy regarding its neighbors. The six-month-old administration of President Xi Jinping, who also heads the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Leading Group on Foreign Affairs, has decided to go soft on India and ASEAN while […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — It’s a toss-up what’s of more concern to India’s 1.2 billion people — border disputes with China or the arrests on bribery charges of stars of India’s most popular sport, the old British game of cricket. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mingled firmness with smiles […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — Chinese forces have staged an “intrusion” into Indian territory that would have been top world news had they been North Korean troops straying across the DMZ into South Korea. On China’s outer fringes, a few dozen Chinese troops huddled in tents at an altitude of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Xi Jinping, newly anointed general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has lost no time laying down what will likely be a leitmotif of his 10-year tenure: promoting “constitutional Socialism with Chinese characteristics.” This so-called “Back to the [Chinese] Constitution” movement will be kicked off after fellow […]
Sol W. Sanders Back in prehistory, during The Cold War, students of arcane Kremlinology — the science and art of trying to unravel what Winston Churchill called “a riddle wrapped in an enigma” — identified a dangerous heresy. “Mirror-imaging”, it was called, defined as attributing to Moscow our own motivations, rather than understanding Soviet Communist […]