China’s Rotational Ruler Model

  China’s President Xi Jinping in Moscow for talks on his first visit to that country as China’s new president. Source: Kremlin Press Office   The only system that can be described as similar to…

US Spying Raises Tensions with China

The US has been increasing air and sea reconnaissance in waters near China, a situation that Beijing regards as dangerous and harmful to the building of trust between the two nations, a senior Chinese military…

Miyazaki Challenge Abe: “Leave Constitution Alone!”

Anime master Hayao Miyazaki blasted the government’s push to revise the Constitution, saying that politicians without any understanding of history “shouldn’t be messing” with the foundation of the country. In a magazine published last week…

Obama’s «Asia Pivot»: The Himalayan Angle

The Obama administration’s «Asia Pivot» is playing out in earnest in joint U.S.-Indian-Israeli intelligence operations in the Himalayan region. The actions by the three cooperative nations’ intelligence agencies are aimed at limiting Chinese influence here….

The REVIVAL of Japanese MILITARISM

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took a further step towards rearmament and the revival of Japanese militarism with the release of a Defence Ministry report last week that for the first time proposed that Japan acquire offensive strike capabilities. Since winning office last December, Abe has moved rapidly to implement his platform of building “a strong Japan” with “a strong military”. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government has expanded defence spending for the first time in a decade and has continued to fuel tensions with China over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets in the East China Sea. A defence white paper released last month for the first time focussed on China, rather than North Korea, as the main “threat”.