Month: January 2016
New found freedoms and old restraints still control clash in modern China. My fascination with China began in 1989. I was 14 then and the image of the man who stood in front of a column of tanks in protest ...
2015 was the year authoritarian governments struck back against democratic pressures. The story of 2015 in Southeast Asia was Myanmar’s November election. In giving the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi a landslide, Myanmar citizens ...
As I entered the villager’s house in coastal Papua and removed my shoes, I was told to bring them in inside – otherwise the Orang Wamena (mountain clan) would steal them. Noticing the ruins of a house nearby, I asked ...
As Ban Ki-moon’s current tenure comes to a close in 2016, January sees the start of the marathon campaign for the selection of a new UN Secretary-General. After months of anticipation, the UN General Assembly has now circulated a joint ...
The year 2015 may have marked the end of an era in Chinese journalism. Until recently, liberal, commercial print media engaged in aggressive and influential reporting that also formed part of a successful business model. The decline of this sector ...
The drone prototype will conduct flight tests over the South China Sea in 2016. Vietnam revealed its largest indigenous high-altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) this December, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly reports. According to local media reports, the prototype ...
A look at the potential implications a DPP victory could have for Taiwan, mainland China, and the United States. Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections are just around the corner — and if the current polls hold, the opposition Democratic Progressive ...
Outside of personal reasons, President Obama issued his executive order on guns for two reasons. First, he is not up for reelection. Second, the Congress is. Most experts agree that the likely policy impact of those executive orders decided by ...
The coalition government ruling in India is in the middle of another corruption scandal. Indeed, India’s comptroller and auditor general (CAG) has after scrutinous examination, accused the government of losing 210 billions dollars in potential revunes by giving discounted coal ...
2016 is just around the corner and there’s a lot to keep an eye on in Asia in the first month of the year. In January 2016, we’ll see elections in Taiwan, the formal operational launch of China’s Asian Infrastructure ...