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, …

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 – …

One of the post-WWII challenges for Japan in the Asian region has typically been to promote reconcilation and good-will. It is something the Japanese have worked at very hard for many decades. In particular, the Fukuda Doctrine of 1977 spearheaded Japanese committments to peace and trust between the Asian countries. And as a result, Japan has achieved its successful global position partly through the development of its soft-power.

The current PM, Mr Aso has stressed the ongoing need for Japan to make use of this soft power. It is well-known …

Well its not just the chief exec of Japan Airlines and the Jamaican PM that are in salary sacrifice mode – the Chinese government has directed executives of state-owned banks and insurers to re-think their pay packets. A government directive said that individual financial enterprises paid top execs too much and even though Chinese executives are paid at modest rates vis a vis Western standards – their pay packets are far larger than ordinary workers.
The directives are siginficant because they highlight the concerns held for the inequality between the …

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 …