MakePolicy.com

Taiwan and China are currently discussing pacts to enhance economic cooperation. Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to claim the island as part of its territory.
But there has been a siginificant alteration in the Taiwanese anti-China policy recently. The President Ma Ying-jeou has made a partial free trade agreement with Beijing his top goal this year. The belief is that in doing so it would help Taiwan maintain its competitive edge in the region. The agreement will permit the free flow of many goods, …

The Japan Times has suggested today that the global credit crisis gives Japan the chance to play a prominent role in forming a new financial order instead of just handing out money. Its the kind of international recognition that Japan has long sought.
With the kind of monies that Japan has agreed to commit over the next number of years one would hope that Japan should be seen as a leader. Japan is still the only Asian country that is a member of the G7 Club.
But how disappointing that the finance …

Does the US want China to take more of a role in dealing with this North Korea nuclear brinkmanship ?
And would China consider invading North Korea?

China seems to have the most influence over North Korea. And maybe the US is happy to let China take the lead with regard to security diplomacy. Typically China and North Korea have been seen as allies. But in the current global political climate does China need a belligerent and irrational neighbour causing regional security issues?
China has a long border with the North Koreans – …

With its shrinking economy, a very depressed stock market and a rising gap between the haves and the have-nots widening, Japan’s politicians are facing a backlash. And with this rising discontent, the Communist Party (JCP) has had a sudden upswing in popularity. Membership has surged and many of these members are young people who are interested in focusing on welfare and job creation.
With the end to the boom years in Japan’s economy, there has been increasing discontent with the ruling liberal LDP regime. At the latest count the membership had …

The Thai government has spend months preparing for this high-profile regional political event – the Asean Summit – but with more than 100,000 people protesting against the Thai government, the summit has been cancelled and foreign dignitaries sent home.
The so-called Red Shirt demonstrators stopped the Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone from entering the site of a meeting between the foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea. In this case, an improvised trilateral meeting went ahead by telephone. But other meetings have been cancelled. For the Thai government it is …

What surprised me this morning was the above image on the front of the online Japan Times. It was described as a picture of a repentant executioner from the 1930-1940s decade. The soldier in the picture is now 88 years old and feels it is his duty to pass on his war experiences to the younger generations. And he talks about the fact that he is haunted by the horrors he witnessed in China.
The writer highlights the Japan’s Imperial Army’s involvement in China. It is a topic that has …

The threat of a rocket launch of has produced sensitive and heated response from three siginificant players in the North East Asian security region – the US, South Korea and neighbouring Japan.
The North Koreans have claimed that their action merely represent a wish to place a communications satellite into orbit. Critics believe the real purpose of the rocket launch is to test the launch vehicle, a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. They argue that this could, in theory, reach Alaska or Hawaii.
UN diplomats are keeping close watch this weekend and anticipate an …

The recent change in political and economic landscapes has meant that there is a hurry and scurry for new and even better relations to be formed between countries. There is a long list of nations that want to become special friends with the Obama administration. But increasingly the other special relationship that appears to be being forged with strength is that of China.
It seems that Napoleons dictum of ‘Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world’ – is ringing in our globally senstive ears as the …

Its April 1 but its no April Fool in dealing with the nuke warhead threat from North Korea. Pyongyang is believed to have several nuclear warheads capable of being mounted on a missile.
This is a considerable concern to Japan which has long been subject to belligerent threats and continued hostile relations with North Korea. And according to North Korea if Japan attempts to intercept the satellite the North Korean army will consider it as the start of Japans war of reinvasion after more than six decades.
Do we just stay tuned …

We wait the effectiveness of the G20 Summit

Will we really be surprised by what comes out of the G20 meeting? Perhaps not – just more of the same.
What was a surprise to me last year as the global credit crunch began to occur was how fragile the whole system really was. I have for years believed in the fundamentals of capitalism – afterall didnt we win the so-called Cold War with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and dismantling of the Iron Curtain.  Over the past year my faith in the …