This summer, many government officials and private investors finally seemed to realize that the crisis in the euro zone was not some passing aberration, but rather a result of deep-seated political, economic, and financial problems that will take many years to resolve. The on-again, off-again euro turmoil has already proved immensely damaging to nearly all Europeans, […]
If the age of men has ended, nobody told Asia. True, across the continent women are obtaining degrees at higher rates — in some cases outpacing men — and bucking traditional gender roles. Yet the past few decades have brought significant setbacks as well as breakthroughs. Men’s wages are now growing faster than women’s wages […]
“Our generation is not wise enough to find a common language on this question,” Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said in 1978 about his country’s territorial dispute with Japan. “Our next generation will certainly be wiser. They will certainly find a solution acceptable to all. In the meantime, Deng proposed, the two sides should jointly develop the […]
The situation in East Asia is tense. Japan and China, two of the most powerful countries in the world, are locked in a bitter dispute over eight tiny, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. The volatility of the issue — compounded by the fact that the waters around the islands are rich in natural resources — is […]
China and Japan’s worst diplomatic crisis since 2005 is putting at risk a trade relationship that’s tripled in the past decade to more than $340 billion. Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Honda Motor Co. (7267) and Panasonic Corp. (6752) reported damage to their operations in China as thousands marched in more than a dozen cities yesterday after Japan last week said […]
China’s worst outbreak of anti-Japan sentiment in decades led to weekend demonstrations and violent attacks on well-known Japanese businesses such as car makers Toyota and Honda, forcing frightened Japanese into hiding and prompting Chinese state media to warn that trade relations could now be in jeopardy. Another outbreak of anti-Japan sentiment is expected across China on Tuesday, […]
In a matter of weeks, the Australian government will release a White Paper entitled “Australia in the Asian Century.” According to my sources, the report will look at how Australia can best exploit future economic opportunities in the region focusing on China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and India. Conspicuously absent from the primary analysis […]
A new free-trade agreement is under negotiation in the Asia-Pacific. If the talks are successful, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) will bring closer together at least 11 economies in East Asia and the Americas. But it faces many hurdles, and raises broader geopolitical issues. For example, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is not part of […]
In the latest step in its naval modernization and expansion, China recently announced that it is accelerating serial production of an advanced destroyer. This will tilt the regional balance of power at sea in its favor and put it in a stronger position to enforce its sovereignty claims over Taiwan and in the South and […]
Not long after a tsunami washed over Japan‘s Fukushima nuclear power plants in March 2011, causing a partial meltdown, it appeared to many that humankind’s half-century experiment with nuclear power might be in permanent jeopardy. Although nuclear energy provides 15 percent of the world’s electricity, all without spewing greenhouse gas emissions, many countries seemed ready […]
looking beyond borders 