Parade of billionaire ‘red capitalists’ coming for CCP’s 18th Party Congress

Parade of billionaire ‘red capitalists’ coming for CCP’s 18th Party Congress

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Just 11 years after then-President Jiang Zemin took the unorthodox step of admitting private businessmen into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an unprecedentedly large number of “red capitalists” are set to be inducted into the Party’s policy-setting Central Committee. According to the official media, at least 24 non-state-sector […]

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com They formed one of the oddest, blood-stained duos in Asian history. Cambodia’s king and prince and then king again, Norodom Sihanouk, bonded with North Korea’s “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung for reasons that had to do with their mutual hatred of the United States. Never did the adage, the […]

Blast from past may block rise of Shanghai Party boss to Politburo Standing Committee

Blast from past may block rise of Shanghai Party boss to Politburo Standing Committee

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Even history buffs in China have only a hazy recollection of one of the most sensational spy and defection cases in Communist Chinese history. In 1985, Yu Qiangsheng, a senior cadre in Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, defected to the United States. The information he provided led to […]

Big Bird is a tool for the Democrats, yes, but also for the Chinese regime

Big Bird is a tool for the Democrats, yes, but also for the Chinese regime

Special to WorldTribune.com By Cliff Kincaid The George Soros-funded Free Press Action Fund describes itself as “a nonpartisan organization” which “does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.” But last week it announced that the “attack on Big Bird and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting” at the presidential debate had “sparked intense reactions […]

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The specter of Park Geun-Hye running for president of the Republic of Korea evokes almost as many memories for those foreigners who were here during the reign of her father as it does for millions of Koreans who share quite differing perspectives. As a journalist in pursuit of […]

China’s intensifying showdown with Japan is distracting from its growing internal crisis

China’s intensifying showdown with Japan is distracting from its growing internal crisis

Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M Downing, FreePressers.com The dispute between China and Japan over the Senkakus group of uninhabited islands and barren rocks jutting up from the East China Sea has intensified in recent days. China has sent armed vessels to the island and anti-Japanese demonstrations have broken out in Chinese cities. Japan has […]

Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line bases makes South anxious

Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line bases makes South anxious

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea — North Korea’s youthful new dictator Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line military bases have put residents of this border island on alert over fears that the North will launch another deadly artillery attack similar to the one in November 2010. While fishermen continue […]

‘Playing God’ with birth rates: The soft underbelly of geopolitics

‘Playing God’ with birth rates: The soft underbelly of geopolitics

Sol W. Sanders   Paying a visit to my phlegmatic Punjabi physician in New Delhi in the early 1960s, I found him uncharacteristically upset. Amniocentesis had come to India and some of his patients were asking him to abort fetuses if they were female. Out of moral scruple, he was refusing, losing patients — and […]

N. Korea’s new leader expected to announce economic reforms in shift from military supremacy

N. Korea’s new leader expected to announce economic reforms in shift from military supremacy

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korea has formed a task force to overhaul the reclusive country’s rigid economic management under new ruler Kim Jong-Un’s reform initiatives, South Korea’s intelligence officials said. The task force is reviewing a set of economic measures drafted on June 28 that focus on improving the […]

Reports: Wiretap led to Ri’s ouster in N. Korea; firefight killed 20

Reports: Wiretap led to Ri’s ouster in N. Korea; firefight killed 20

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — Ri Yong-Ho, the most ardent supporter of late North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Il’s “military-first” policy, was purged because he had complained about youthful new ruler Kim Jong-Un’s push for policy changes, sources and officials in Seoul say. But Ri’s dismissal could encourage his supporters and hardline […]