Asia

TAIWAN INSIDER Vol. 3 No. 6 Regional tensions increase following the purported deployment by China of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea; Taiwan will not accept a Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling on the South…

  After the East West Dialogues 2015, during the last weekend, the international meeting “East West Dialogues 2016: New Generations in Orient and Occident: surveys and dialogues” took place in Varkala (Kerala, India). This meeting was the peak event of…

Hong Kong’s Mei Li from the organisation Hong Kong History Watch has interviewed many WWII Chinese ‘comfort women’, in Shanxi and Hainan over the past few years. These were women of all ages that were forced by the Japanese to…

Although this writing was completed in 2003 and the paragraphs on ‘no external debt’ will appear out of order, best bear in mind that all that is spoken of in this essay is still ‘in potential’ and the riddance or…

In Hong Kong 2016 the Lunar New Year was being happily celebrated across the territory and in the crowded ever-popular Mongkok district it was the perennially delightful scene of crowds and snack stalls, kids and elders alike all enjoying seasonal…

Gov’t in the dark unless media is free, says Irene Z. Khan Irene Z. Khan, director general of the International Development Law Organisation, says development and democracy are not possible without the presence of a free media and freedom of…

There has always been something suspicious about what once was termed ‘global warming’, then became climate change – which no one can deny is taking place. Then the issue was further refined and the core point became man-made negative changes…

North Korea is shooting missiles into the East Asia skies again and the all the hounds are baying for blood but this scenario is regularly played out yet no one makes a move to change anything fundamentally. North Korea (DPRK)…

  Myanmar is a country rapidly moving toward uncharted political terrain. By March 2016, the National League for Democracy (NLD) will take power for the first time in history, bringing an end to five decades of rule by the military establishment. Once…

The Tunnels of Cu Chi A harrowing account of America’s “Tunnel Rats” in the underground battlefields of Vietnam, by Tom Mangold & John Penycate – Ballantine Books. A friend asked me to read this book and I am glad I…