Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com The People’s Liberation Army has beefed up its naval infrastructure the better to stake out China’s claim as a “maritime strong power.” Sources close to the military establishment said that President Xi Jinping, who is also commander-in-chief, recently set up a Central Leading Group on Upholding Maritime Rights […]
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 Gregory R. Copley, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs China — the People’s Republic of China — has been accused, as 2014 and the Year of the Horse dawn, of aggressively stepping out of its geographic constraints and seeking territorial hegemony over areas beyond those associated with Chinese sovereignty, as well as over areas […]
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 Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Beijing’s designation of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that partially overlaps with that of Japan and South Korea has raised alarms throughout the Asia-Pacific Region. While attention has focused on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership’s immediate goal of securing de facto control over the Diaoyu-Senkaku islands […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Ok, the North-South talks fizzled when neither could agree on who was truly “ministerial.” Now the question is when, how, or if the talks will happen. No matter, the Xi-Obama summit has to be viewed as a success in view of the post-summit sideshow between negotiators of North […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANILA — Japan is probing the possibilities of a most improbable alliance in a corner of Southeast Asia that once lay at the heart of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” The term “co-prosperity” was a euphemism for Imperial Japan’s policy of prospering off impoverished people from Burma […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NAHA, Okinawa, Japan — The future of American power in Asia revolves closely around U.S. forces on this island that is home to a full panoply of U.S. air and ground forces well south of the Japanese “mainland.” Most people here would just as soon they go somewhere […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Manila appears to be easing its hardline stance towards Beijing and may be willing to jointly develop oil and natural gas resources in the hotly disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. “We are amenable to the [Chinese offer of joint development] for as long as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com The Russian-built Akula II class SSN Nerpa was handed over to an Indian crew as the INS Chakra at a submarine base near Vladivostok on Jan. 23. The 10-year lease will cost New Delhi nearly $1 billion. The 13,500-ton submarine is the 15th vessel in India’s submarine […]