In the 1960s, “The Orient” captured a new interest among the post-World War II Beat Generation as the lures of Zen Buddhism, Indian music, Thai weed and related mind-altering experiences rippled through the hip communities of the West. While young American GIs were fighting the Vietnam War, more peaceable folks were donning backpacks and heading […]
Posted inNorth-South Korea
Moon’s right-hand man former friend to the North
This article was originally published May 14, 2017. Im Jong-seok has now been mentioned as President’s Moon’s possible nominee for the post of unification minister. As US investigators hunkered down last week to investigate whether US President Donald Trump’s election campaign colluded with a hostile government, South Korea’s new president was appointing a right-hand man […]
Posted inAT Financial
Asia Times Financial launches news service, China domestic bond index
Asia Times Financial (ATF) today launched news and index services – notably the Asia Times Financial China Bond 50 Index – to provide expert, fast and accurate narratives about key Asian credit markets. The ATF China Bond 50 Index is a product created by the collaborative strength of Capital Link International and its partners: media platform ATF and […]
Posted inPakistan
Pakistan industry wants curbs on China’s BRI imports
PESHAWAR – The use of Chinese steel in Beijing-funded Belt and Road projects in Pakistan is raising hackles with local producers who claim cheap imports are pushing the local industry to a breaking point. This month, the Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers (PALSP) sent a plaintive plea to Prime Minister Imran Khan seeking a […]
Posted inAnalysis
Moscow meet brings Taliban closer to international legitimacy
The meeting in Moscow of 10 regional states and Taliban officials on Wednesday produced an outcome that by far exceeded expectations. The salience of the consensus opinion is fourfold, as reflected in the joint statement issued after the event: Regional recognition that the Taliban government is a compelling “reality”; It is through constructive engagement that […]
Posted inCovid-19
AZ antibody treatment offers new line of Covid defense
A new treatment could soon help protect people from developing severe Covid. AstraZeneca has just released results from a phase 3 clinical trial – the final stage of testing before a drug is authorized – that suggest its new Covid treatment, AZD7442, is effective at reducing severe disease or death in non-hospitalized Covid patients. The […]
Posted inBook Review
Battle between the ears: Chinese media warfare
Can the People’s Republic of China (PRC) invade and conquer Taiwan? Experts differ, but 99% of the current debate considers only the military balance – and whether the PLA has the weapons, hardware, and capabilities to get ashore, defeat Taiwan’s military and force Taiwan to surrender. The military match-up is important, but it misses half […]
Posted inGeopolitics
The world according to Vladimir Putin
The plenary session is the traditional highlight of the annual, must-follow Valdai Club discussions – one of Eurasia’s premier intellectual gatherings. Vladimir Putin is a frequent keynote speaker. In Sochi this year, as I related in a previous column, the overarching theme was “global shake-up in the 21st century: the individual, values and the state.” Putin addressed it head on, […]
Posted inSingapore
Highly vaccinated Singapore sets a worrying example
SINGAPORE – With 84% of Singaporeans fully vaccinated against Covid-19, one of the highest percentages worldwide, many had expected authorities would by now be easing, not maintaining, social distancing and other contagion-curbing restrictions. But that’s exactly what officials are doing as the island nation seeks to cope with its largest outbreaks since the start of […]
Posted inUnited States
Biden: We will protect Taiwan if China attacks
If there was any doubt, it has been quashed — the message to Beijing was stark and clear. Or was it? Perhaps it got murkier. President Joe Biden said the US would defend Taiwan if China attacked, in an apparent departure from a long-held US foreign policy position, CNN Politics reported. Asked twice during CNN’s […]
Posted inNorth Korea
North Korea’s sub missiles put a target on Kim’s back
SEOUL – The de facto missile race accelerating on both sides of the Korean peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is expanding in multiple directions. With both Koreas upgrading their tech and their teeth, the parameters of the race are diversifying from land-based launch systems to near space and under the waves. On Thursday, South Korea launched […]
Posted inPhilippines
Nowhere worse to be than Covid-ravaged Philippines
MANILA – Despite a series of lockdowns and some of the most stringent social distancing measures worldwide, the Philippines is still consistently ranked among the global laggards in Covid-19 management. According to Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking, the Southeast Asian country is the “worst place” in the world to be during the pandemic, owing to President […]
Posted inChina
Milestones show path of Xi’s transformation drive
A “profound transformation” in China’s business and cultural sectors is on track as shown by four incidents on October 8, according to the latest article written by a columnist who first mentioned the reforms later dubbed “Cultural Revolution 2.0”. The incidents included new rules to cut off private investments’ influence on media outlets, a fine […]
Posted inAnalysis
Biden encircling while engaging Putin
Moscow butted the grand old trans-Atlantic alliance in the chest on Monday with the Foreign Ministry announcing that it will suspend the NATO military liaison mission with effect from November 1 and recall the accreditation of its staff in response to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s decision to withdraw the accreditation of eight Russian diplomats. […]
Posted inHong Kong
Virtuoso delight in HK Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty
Hong Kong Ballet’s offering this autumn was a revival of the 2010 production of the 19th century Tchaikovsky classic “The Sleeping Beauty” by Cynthia Harvey, a former principal of both the American Ballet Theatre and Royal Ballet. Since the company is slightly smaller in size than the major ballet companies in the world, this production […]
Posted inChina
Evergrande staves off default with dollar bond payment
The Evergrande Group has reportedly made an overdue US$83.5 million interest payment to its overseas bondholders, a move that will allow the heavily indebted Chinese property developer to avoid default before a 30-day grace period expires on Saturday. Evergrande wired the funds on Thursday to a Citibank account of its client, who will then pay […]
Posted inEuropean Union
EU building walls to repel Afghan refugee wave
From the Turkish border to Spain, from the Baltic Sea to Italy and the Balkans, European Union countries are building barriers to keep migrants out of the continent as a gathering wave of Afghan refugees mounts. Since 2015, when then-German chancellor Angela Merkel invited roving groups of asylum seekers free entry to her country — […]
Posted inOpinion
Cyprus: From holiday island to ‘holy island’
In December, Pope Francis will visit Cyprus, making him the second Roman Catholic pontiff to travel to the eastern Mediterranean island – the first being Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Primarily Greek Orthodox, Cyprus is home to a small but vibrant Latin community of more than 2,400 people who can trace their roots to the […]
Posted inNorth Korea
Kim Jong Un scored with a Covid-19 Hail Mary pass
Around the world, many nations are examining the overall impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. North Korea, however, maintains that although it has tested people – 42,095 of them, as of October 11 – zero cases have been confirmed within its borders. According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement early in the pandemic, North Korea’s ability to maintain zero cases […]
Posted inIndia
India’s Ola revs up market-grabbing used car sales app
Ride-hailing app Ola has set ambitious plans for its vehicle commerce platform Ola Cars for the coming 12 months. The Bangalore-based company said it will hire 10,000 people as it eyes a market leadership position with US$2 billion GMV (gross merchandise value) in a year. Ola Cars was formally launched in August this year and […]
Posted inNorth Korea
N Korea rattles from walking skeletons, not sabers
It’s probably no coincidence that North Korea’s test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Tuesday came just as the country’s military was reported to have begun investigating soldiers’ “nutritional status.” After all, if the “human bullets” who have vowed to protect the leader are getting so few calories it affects their readiness to fight, it […]
Posted inTechnology
Facebook’s Ego4D envisions smart glasses future
Facebook has announced a research project that aims to push the “frontier of first-person perception”, and in the process help you remember where you left your keys. The Ego4D project provides a huge collection of first-person video and related data, plus a set of challenges for researchers to teach computers to understand the data and […]
Posted inAfghanistan
Why the Taliban won’t tackle ISIS-K
While the Taliban struggles to consolidate its power two months after toppling Kabul, the rival Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) militant group represents a rising and potentially existential threat to its rule. The militant group world-renowned for its own terror tactics is now on the receiving end of rising terror attacks. On October 16, ISIS-K took responsibility […]