Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com A People’s Daily commentary on the one-and-half-year rule of President Xi Jinping has thus characterized the Chinese strongman’s unique approach to foreign policy: alternatively using tough and soft tactics so as to close the gap with the United States as the leading arbiter in global affairs. The extraordinary article, entitled […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Conflict between Israel and the Hamas bears some startling resemblances to that between North and South Korea. Think about it: Israel and North Korea are both essentially client states. Israel couldn’t fight anyone, could not exist surrounded by Arab enemies, without all the arms the U.S. has been pouring into the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com China’s President Xi Jinping makes a careful distinction between U.S. President Obama and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It’s OK to talk to the former, just not the latter. And so Xi and Obama got on the phone earlier this week to talk about the world. But China […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — U.S. foreign policy these days is so confusing and conflicting that it’s impossible to figure out where the U.S. is going, whether in the Middle East, Eastern Europe or Northeast Asia. The U.S., which has suffered a catastrophe in Iraq of spectacular proportions, may be headed […]
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 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com JEJU – Schoolchildren here sing a mournful song about a gigantic rock about 90 miles southwest of the island where the souls of fishermen lost at sea find their final repose. The rock cannot really be called an outcropping since it’s actually submerged several meters, but South Korea […]