On April 15, 50 Chinese soldiers were stationed in the Western border region to India, the Depsang valley in the region Ladakh. Both countries claim to be the right owner of the disputed area. According to Reuters, China agreed now, a few weeks after the incident to withdraw troops again, but the conflict is not yet over and both countries insist to annex the region officially to their own country.
Already in 1962, the two countries fought about the ownership of the region, as stated on GloablSecurity. Tension arose between the two after India promised the Dalai Lama asylum in 1959, which might have its influence to the outbreak of the Indo-China War in the region three years later, as the website describes. 2,000 people died during the 1-month war. As a result the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was established, a border, which both sides however to not totally accept but respect for now. According to Aljazeera, India and China held 15 meetings so far, but did not make significant progress yet on how the dispute can be solved.
Both, the article of Reuter and the one of Aljazeera consider contiguity to Pakistan of the disputed region to be China’s main interest for their claim of the Depsang valley. Pakistan is a major trading partner of China, especially as a customer of Chinese weapons. Read the rest of this entry »
These two simple words “Factory Asia” can visually define Asia’s growth performance over the last two decades. The first impression of Asia from Western aspect would be growing population that can provide cheap and abundant labor. However, the map of products produced and traded by Asian economies rapidly changed from low value sectors (i.e. agriculture) to manufacturing and services in recent years. According to the conference record from the 46th Annual Meeting of The Board of Governors in Delhi in May, 2013, developing economies in Asia have revealed remarkable growth over the past few decades. Meanwhile, strong growth combined with visible reductions in poverty has encountered a setback during the global financial crisis. Hence, in order to absolutely implement the innovation of Asian economy, the relevant actions and adjustments must be carried. Read the rest of this entry »
In the twenty-first session of the ASEAN summit, ASEAN leaders agreed to establish the ASEAN Community at the end of 2015. However, there are only less than three years before the deadline until now. Base on the blueprint of ASEAN Community, it should be possible to build a prototype of the community for ASEAN in the next 3 years, according to Liu Ming, Deputy Director of Institute of International Relations of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Nevertheless, although ASEAN has its own competitive advantages and opportunities, it is unpractical for ASEAN to establish a high integrated union like EU in a short term if the challenges cannot be dealt with properly
The ASEAN Economic Community goal consists of five aspects: accessibility of trade and investment, regional trade interdependence, economic related laws and a unified political system, the formation of the single market and production base, and to establish economic authority beyond its members. In fact, AEC can be considered as an upgraded version of free trade area, namely in the foundation of zero trade tariffs, which will make the freedom of movement about goods, services, investment and technology workers possible. However, there is still a long way for ASEAN to establish the political, economic and social – cultural community goals. Whether ASEAN can achieve the goal on schedule in 2015, in particular to found economic community, is still have a lot of questions. Read the rest of this entry »
Margaret Thatcher, known as the ‘Iron Lady’, has died on April 8, 2013. The former Prime Minister of Britain was staying at the Ritz in London, after having suffered from a series of strokes.
Appointed in 1979, running for the conservative party, she became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. In 1983 the party was re-elected and again in 1987. Throughout her career in government she witnessed the climax of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1990 Thatcher was forced to resign from her office due to a leadership struggle within her party. Read the rest of this entry »
For a long time, discussions about China’s aircraft carrier never stopped. The authorities also slowed cautious on this issue, because the western society always connects the aircraft carriers owned by China with the “China Threat Theory”. They believe China is eager to seek hegemony by building aircraft carriers and the development of Chinese military force will be a threat to global peace. All kinds of rumors about whether China has aircraft carriers were spread by the international community. However, military vessels can show the status of a country’s military development, therefore, it is unrealistic that China as a rising power would be without aircraft carriers. Hence, on September 29, 2012, the spokesperson of State Defense Ministry officially declared that the first aircraft carrier of China, Liaoning, went into service. China has been the10th country in the world to join the aircraft carrier “club”. This raises the question why China authorities are so determined to rapidly develop its naval force. The current territorial disputes must be one undeniable reason. Read the rest of this entry »
Rohingya, a Muslim minority mainly living in the northern Rakhine state of Burma, are considered one of the most persecuted and oppressed groups in the world by the UN. Due to the historical ethnic conflict between Muslim and Buddhist and Rohingya helped British for colonial domination during the World War Two, they are not recognized by the military-backed government in Burma based on the “Burma Civil Law” since 1982. “Death would be better than this life”, Nasima, a Rohingya refugee said. They do not have any human rights, land rights, marriage rights, and even no nationality. The domestic Arakan in Rakhine state considers the Rohingya immigrated to Burma during the colonial domination period by British, but the Rohingya do not think so. The Burmese government treats them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Hence, the domestic citizens are generally hostile to the Rohingya and call them Bengalese. Meanwhile, the interesting point is that Bangladesh government considers the Rohingya Burmese. Thanks to the historical and ethnic origin’s reasons, Rohingya have been suffering more agony than any other ethnic minority the world. The future of Rohingya should be paid attention to by the international community. Read the rest of this entry »
After the Second World War the world seems more united and wars are less likely to happen because nations know what causes it can have on an entire population. As argued by Samuel Huntington in his book “The Clash of Civilization”, wars happen because it lies within human nature. This pessimistic worldview is part of the dominant realist school of thought within the realm of international relations and is based on the premise that war will happen in the future because nations differ in cultures, norms, values and beliefs. For many years now, North Korea and South Korea have been at war and have not been able to sort out their differences. Despite various diplomatic efforts such as the so called “Six Party Talks” which are aimed at ending North Korea´s nuclear program involving negotiations between China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia, no peace treaty has been signed yet.
North Korea seems to be on the path of war, as they recently on 30 March declared” state of war” with South Korea. The following video informs over North Koreas recent actions and the reactions of the United States, reported by BBC News.
Apple is “eating” China, or China is “invading” Apple
On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, China’s national TV broadcaster CCTV exposed what it called Apple’s discriminatory warranty-repair policy in an investigative programme. In this programme it was claimed that Apple discriminates against Chinese Apple users by treating them as second-class citizens. People’s Daily, an official government newspaper, even accused Apple as a firm of “unparalleled arrogance.” It reported that Apple offers shorter guarantees than in other countries and escapes after-sale obligations. However, as a response, Apple posted an announcement on its official Chinese website stating that it providers a 90-day warranty on repairs, just like in the United States. This is longer than the 30 days required by Chinese law. Both sides have their own arguments. The citizens would consider it as one normal economic case. However, the experts seem think this issue is not as simple as the public thinks. Hence, what is behind the Chinese government’s public “sanction” of Apple? Read the rest of this entry »
The poster shows the relation between N. Korea and US
The dispute about N. Korea has never stopped in the international communities. Any petty action of Pyongyang will lead an endless discussion by mass media. From the Korean War to the nuclear test recently, N. Korea shows us its ambition that wants to be more powerful on the global platform. Nevertheless, it is the consequence that United States does not want to see, for N. Korea is one dangerous socialist state with nuke power from their perspective.
The report from Seoul on March 21st illustrate that as the response to use of nuclear armed US B-52 bombers in joint military drills with South Korea, North Korean army possible strike against US military based in Japan. A spokesman of the Pyongyang supreme command said they won’t tolerate US set them as a target of nuclear strike drills.
The Korea issue is one of the toughest problems in the world until now. From the regional aspect, it is the competition between N. Korea and S. Korea. However, on the global strategic level, it is the US-supported Western countries and China-backed Eastern countries’ struggle. Read the rest of this entry »
After the global recession in 2008 most people may have thought that bail-outs were the end of things, but five years later banks and even entire countries still default on their financial obligations. In case of Cyprus´ recent economic failures have forced the Cypriot government to ask for a bail-out from the European Union in order to safeguard the country´s economy. On 25 March it was decided by the European commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Council of European Central Bank (ECB) to provide Cyprus with a bail-out package of € 10 billion euros. As recently reported by The Economist, Cyprus is one of the four euro-zone countries after Greece, Ireland and Portugal to receive a bail-out in order to save the economy and to protect the euro-zone. The institutions which are affected immediately are Cyprus banks which face major liquidity issues as a result of a general mistrust of Cypriot citizens. Read the rest of this entry »
