This article was first published by Pacific Forum and is republished with kind permission. Read the original here. As Beijing looked on angrily, the US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers met in Tokyo during the last week of July to announce they will increase bilateral security cooperation. The US government said it will upgrade its military […]

The post China isn’t getting the Japan it wants appeared first on Asia Times.

While America’s Republican Party talks toughness on China and support for Taiwan, its presidential candidate has just described with more clarity than ever his personal inclination to let China conquer Taiwan. Although a reputation for having a “transactional” view of foreign policy precedes him, Trump’s recent comments about Taiwan are jarring. Current President Joe Biden strained the US […]

The post Trump remains stubbornly wrong on Taiwan appeared first on Asia Times.

Condemnation of Israel’s invasion of Gaza has dominated the news, mobilized civil society groups to launch protests, and drawn rebukes from world leaders. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called the death and destruction in Gaza “unprecedented.” On June 10, the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries similarly criticized the “unprecedented escalation of violence” in Gaza and “Israel’s continued blatant disregard […]

The post Why Gaza gets more attention than Xinjiang appeared first on Asia Times.

There are at least two ways to view Sino-American tensions. The United States and China are two great powers competing for pre-eminent strategic influence over the same geographic region. But they are also the leaders of two contending ideological blocs pitting liberal democracies against authoritarians.  The latter view suggests that regime type is the root problem. Some US […]

The post Why US shouldn’t seek regime change in China appeared first on Asia Times.

China employs various “gray zone” tactics – moderately aggressive actions that are not egregious enough to provoke conventional military retaliation­ – against multiple adversaries. One such tactic is deployed within the United States: undeclared influence operations through social media. Chinese government-linked activity has recently become more worrisome. Previously the principal danger was People’s Republic of China (PRC) […]

The post China’s gray zone social media war comes to America appeared first on Asia Times.

US and South Korean delegations met in Hawaii on April 23 to begin talks about how much host nation support Seoul will pay toward the cost of operating US military bases in South Korea. Under a “special measures agreement” that is renewed every few years, Seoul helps pay for the land and electricity used by US bases, […]

The post South Korea tries to Trump-proof the alliance appeared first on Asia Times.

Along with its deployment of new types and larger numbers of vehicles that can deliver nuclear weapons, the government of North Korea presented its neighbor the Republic of Korea (ROK) with a new worry this year.  Paramount leader Kim Jong-un made official a revised view of North Korea’s relationship with the South, one that Pyongyang had gravitated […]

The post Living with an anti-reunification North Korea appeared first on Asia Times.

The latest developments in the South China Sea territorial dispute point to ASEAN’s long-running failure to deal with a major regional problem, highlighting the regional organization’s inherent weakness. As the confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels near the Second Thomas Shoal within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) have grown sharper, the South China Sea […]

The post ASEAN stands idly by, as usual, on South China Sea appeared first on Asia Times.

Chinese officials tout “Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy” as “epoch-making” and praise the “great insight” of Xi’s “Global Security Initiative.” When it comes to Taiwan, however, Xi appears stuck with a misguided and failing policy as underscored by the results of the island’s January 13 elections.  China’s policy holds that Taiwan must subordinate itself to the […]

The post Xi’s Taiwan rhetoric backfired at the ballot box appeared first on Asia Times.

A few days ago Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the Japanese attack in a ceremony attended by several hundred, including centenarian survivors. Not only did the bombing of the harbor by Japanese aircraft in what was then a US territory pull the United States into World War II […]

The post China struggles to repurpose the lessons of the Pearl Harbor attack appeared first on Asia Times.

A restoration of high-level official meetings between US and People’s Republic of China (PRC) leaders following the spy balloon crisis of February 2023 has fueled cautious optimism that US-China relations are improving.  The most important event in this purported “thaw” was the meeting between Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden in California […]

The post Taiwan still flashing red despite US-China ‘thaw’ appeared first on Asia Times.

The likely meeting between Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco in November supports hopes of a “thaw” in US-China relations this year. Biden predicted such a thaw earlier this year and some observers believe they see an upturn. The outlook is less optimistic, however, if we […]

The post US-China relations have stabilized, but in permafrost appeared first on Asia Times.

A controversial take on nuclear weapons is that they have the upside of preserving peace by making war so dangerous that states try harder to avoid it.  Many international relations analysts within the neo-realist school subscribe to this view. They point out that despite decades of tense relations between the United States and the Soviet Union […]

The post There is no ‘nuclear peace’ on the Korean Peninsula appeared first on Asia Times.

Harvard University Professor Stephen M Walt asserts in a recent article in Foreign Policy that five key questions should guide US policy toward the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Walt’s key questions involve China’s future economic strength; the impact of US attempts to deny China access to advanced technologies; Xi Jinping’s leadership competence; the “effectiveness” of balancing against China […]

The post Four key questions for US China policy appeared first on Asia Times.

South Koreans are worried about the three-body problem. Not the astrophysical phenomenon featured in the popular science fiction novel by Liu Cixin; rather, it’s the geopolitical phenomenon that links China, Taiwan and North Korea. Because of the relationships among these three governments, a war in the Taiwan Strait could cause a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula.  If the […]

The post In a Taiwan war, Seoul’s problem won’t be Pyongyang appeared first on Asia Times.

The major political parties in Taiwan have now selected their presidential candidates, kicking off the campaign season that will culminate in combined presidential and legislative elections on January 13, 2024. For cross-Strait relations, this election may be the most significant in history. China is becoming militarily capable of attempting a forcible annexation of Taiwan, and Beijing […]

The post Fateful demise of the Taiwan-China ’92 Consensus appeared first on Asia Times.

A People’s Republic of China (PRC) scholar’s recent commentary on US-China relations is refreshing in its even-handedness and optimism. The author of the July 5 essay, Wu Xinbo, is the dean of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai and has substantial experience exchanging views with US foreign affairs experts. Nevertheless, Wu oversimplifies the difficulty […]

The post US, China want to reconcile but don’t know how appeared first on Asia Times.

A retired People’s Liberation Army senior colonel recently wrote that the South China Sea “is far more dangerous” than Taiwan as a potential trigger for a US-China war.  His reasoning was that while close encounters between US and People’s Republic of China ships and aircraft are rare near Taiwan, they are frequent in the South China Sea, […]

The post China’s patient but insistent South China Sea grab appeared first on Asia Times.

China claims to be a uniquely benevolent international actor—a great power that, unlike other great powers past and present, does not practice “power politics” (self-interested bullying of smaller states) and is not “selfish” or warlike. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) government styles itself as the custodian of principles that, if implemented, would excise international relations of conflict […]

The post Mekong squeeze tests China’s good neighbor narrative appeared first on Asia Times.

Xi Jinping is building a track record of overreaching in his foreign policies. Chinese attempts to gain influence among the Pacific island states fit this increasingly familiar pattern. Last year, the security agreement that Beijing reached with the Solomon Islands stunned the larger liberal democratic countries upon which the Pacific island states have traditionally relied […]

The post How China overreached and lost its grip in the Pacific appeared first on Asia Times.