Tag Archives: Analysis

Q&A: China expert Susan Shirk updates her view of Sino-US relations

Asia Times top writer George Koo recently interviewed Susan L. Shirk, the author of 2007’s acclaimed “China, Fragile Superpower.” Professor Shirk is an influential expert on Chinese politics who served as deputy assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration. She was a guest speaker at a Feb. 18 forum in Palo Alto, Calif. hosted […]

The Interpreter’s best of 2015: South China Sea

Throughout the Christmas-New Year break, The Interpreter will be featuring some of its best pieces from 2015. More to come between now and January 4 when The Interpreter will be back for 2016. South China Sea: Does Xi have a grand strategy?, by Linda Jakobson, 13 January. I do want to emphasise, however, that the […]

Hey, China, this is why democracies beat autocracies in a fight. (So back off the South China Sea.)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama toast during a State Dinner, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Who wins a bar fight? The person with the most friends at the bar. Who wins a war? The country that fights alongside the most […]

John Ivison: Tension between China and Japan over islands could threaten world peace

TOKYO – Shinjuku station at rush hour is like a highly organized ant colony, as 3.6-million commuters converge on the world’s busiest transport hub every day. Yet harmony, rather than chaos, reigns in a society that remains a remarkable consensus of politeness, co-operation and affinity. A train that arrives two minutes late is greeted by […]

How America and China Have Different Visions of International Order

This May, China’s Ministry of Defense published a white paper, “China’s Military Strategy,” only a few months after the United States’ most recent National Security Strategy (NSS) was released.  It is revealing to compare the two documents, both to see how each nation envisions the other in a strategic context, and because it adds to […]

Chinese-Filipino Community’s Dilemma: The Philippines, China, and the South China Sea Disputes

Nationalism and nationhood in post-colonial, cosmopolitan countries like the Philippines aren’t about ethnicity, but, as eminent Sociologist Benedict Anderson suggest, they are instead anchored by an “imagined community” that is bound by shared dreams, sufferings, and experiences. Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, pitting a powerful China against a beleaguered Philippines, the sizable […]

Don’t go wobbly on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea

In a recent East Asia Forum article, Sam Bateman criticised a decision by the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to develop military plans for more assertive freedom of navigation (FON) operations in the South China Sea (SCS). Specifically, Bateman asserts that ‘there are significant legal, operational and political risks involved with these operations’. While there […]

Why China is far from ready to meet the U.S. on a global battlefront

June 23 (Reuters) – Both of these statements are true:   1) China possesses a rapidly improving military that, in certain local or regional engagements, could match – and even defeat – U.S. forces in battle. 2) In military terms, China is a paper dragon that, despite its apparent strength, is powerless to intervene in […]

China is a threat: US scholar

The three scholars mentioned in the article are Dr. Mr. Denny Roy, a senior expert on governance and security from the East-West Center (USA), Prof. Sherry P. Broder, a lecturer at the William S. Richardson Law School, University of Hawaii (USA) and Dr. Li Guoqiang, a researcher in the field of philosophy and social sciences […]

China’s “historical evidence” worthless to international law

China may show ‘evidence’ that Chinese sailors used to be present in the East Sea (South China Sea in international name), but according to international law, that does not prove its ownership. In the perspective of China, the country with many plans to turn the East Sea into its own pond, Mr. Li Guoqiang, a […]