Asia-Pacific Archive

In Rajasthan, one of India’s poorest states, mustard plants that used to be burned are now a source of income for many farming families. They sell the plants to a biomass power plant. Science News by NewsLook

North Korea’s new leader addressed his nation and the world for the first time Sunday, vowing to place top priority on his impoverished nation’s military, which promptly unveiled a new long-range missile. World News Videos by NewsLook

The Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks across the Afghan capital and at least three eastern provinces on Sunday, targeting NATO bases, parliament and foreign embassies in a complex assault. World News Videos by NewsLook

In yet another disagreement between China and its neighbors over the disputed South China Sea, the Philippines last week claimed that one of its naval patrols had discovered eight Chinese fishing vessels loaded with illegal catch in an area it considers to be within its own exclusive economic zone. When the Philippine patrol refused to allow the fishing boats to leave the area without discharging their catch, China speeded three maritime survey ships to the area. Since then, the two countries have engaged in a standoff that continues, even though the Philippine warship allowed the fishermen to leave the area […]

International relations experts are pretty much down on everything nowadays. America, we are told, is incapable of global leadership: too discredited overseas, too few resources back home, too little will — period. For a brief moment there, while China held up the global economy during the recent financial crisis, much credence was given to the notion that we were on the verge of a Chinese century. But that popular vision has also waned surprisingly quickly, and now the conventional wisdom centers on China’s great weaknesses, challenges and overall brittleness. Amazingly, where we spoke of a U.S.-China “G-2” arrangement just a […]

With some 6,000 new patients every year, an orthopaedic centre in Kabul highlights the growing number of civilians severely injured by bombs that have grown more powerful than ever before. World News Videos by NewsLook

The debate over whether or not the United States is in decline is more than just a parlor game among pundits and academics, as the answer to that question informs starkly different policy choices for the country. For significant portions of the anti-interventionist left and right — the latter represented by the small but vocal constituency of GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul — a United States that is in decline ought to cut back on its engagements abroad and avoid playing the role of the world’s policeman, and instead focus on rebuilding America’s domestic institutions, particularly its economy. While […]

It is no surprise that piracy has steadily climbed up the ranks of threats to India’s security, given India’s energy trade with the Middle East. But now, with vast untapped oil reserves reported in Somalia and just off its coast, piracy emanating from the Horn of Africa is impinging on India’s future energy sourcing opportunities as well. Further complicating India’s plans for the region is the nexus between Somali pirates and the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab, which still has a significant presence in central Somalia and provides sanctuary to pirate fleets operating out of the central Somali city of Harardhere in […]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged nuclear-armed North Korea not to go ahead with its planned rocket launch if it wants a “peaceful, better future” for its people. World News Videos by NewsLook

In the midst of commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung, North Korea is apparently preparing to fire a ballistic missile. While Pyongyang insists the rocket launch is for the sole purpose of sending a satellite into orbit, most analysts say the launch is an effort to develop ballistic missile technology to support North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program. The satellite launch is seen as a clear violation not only of United Nations resolutions requiring North Korea to suspend activities — including launches — related to its ballistic missile program, but also of […]

Last week, the Indian Express, a leading national newspaper, reported that a routine military drill in January meant to test Indian army units’ mobility in fog conditions instead exposed the depth of distrust between India’s military and civilian leaders. According to the article, two Indian army units advanced on the Indian capital, New Delhi, as part of the drill. But because the military had not notified the Defense Ministry of the troop movements, as protocol requires, civilian authorities reacted by raising an alert before ordering the military to return the troops to their bases. “It is really good that all […]

Since sovereignty over Hong Kong was returned from Britain to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on July 1, 1997, the island has maintained the rule of law and civil liberties. Nevertheless, politically and economically, Hong Kong has also experienced some degree of “mainland-ization” under the “one country, two systems” system that frames relations between the Special Administrative Region and Beijing. At the same time, economic integration with the island has resulted in a process of “Hong Kong-ization” of the mainland, if less dramatically. The impact of both phenomena has implications not only for relations between the two, but also […]

On April 6, China’s Ministry of Public Security published a list of six Uighurs wanted for “terrorism” and described as “core members of an extremist group” that had recruited and trained members to carry out terror attacks. The move came on the heels of the latest evidence of Uighur unrest in China’s Xinjiang province and of the local authorities’ nervous reactions to it: The accidental explosion last month of a homemade bomb led police to raid a farm near the city of Korla, killing four Uighurs who, the Chinese authorities themselves later admitted, had nothing to do with the explosion. […]

The economic reforms that began in China in the early 1980s triggered one of the largest population movements in human history. Since they began, in each decade, tens of millions of rural people have left the land to seek higher incomes by working or trading in urban areas. The census in 2000 found that there were more than 120 million migrant workers in Chinese cities. More-recent estimates go as high as 200 million. This massive internal migration has appeared especially dramatic from a Chinese perspective because mobility was severely restricted in Maoist times, making it almost impossible for rural people […]

Ever since Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill defined the BRIC group of countries in 2001, policymakers have been closely watching the rise of the presumed leaders of the 21st century. And it was widely expected that as Brazil, Russia, China, India and recently added South Africa exercised growing power in global politics, they would also play a larger role in efforts to promote global development by using their own success as a template for smaller and lesser developed states. At their recent summit in New Delhi, the BRICS heads of state signaled their intention to take up that responsibility. The […]

Writing in Foreign Affairs this month, Henry Kissinger opined that, when it comes to the future of Sino-American relations, “conflict is a choice, not a necessity.” Those are some serious words from one of history’s all-time realists, but more important than his analysis is the fact that he even felt the need to issue that public statement regarding these two ultimately codependent superpowers. A trusted part-time adviser to President Barack Obama, Kissinger knows he has the president’s ear on China, the target of this administration’s recently announced strategic military “pivot” toward East Asia. The codependency at work here isn’t the […]

Stratfor analyst Nathan Hughes discusses the Indian navy’s commissioning of the INS Chakra II, a nuclear-powered submarine, in an attempt to balance China’s naval ambitions in the Indian Ocean. World News Videos by NewsLook