SEOUL – Warning shots were exchanged over the Yellow Sea maritime frontier between the two Koreas in the early hours this morning (October 24), pouring fuel onto an already heated situation on the peninsula. There were no reports of damage or death along the NLL, or “Northern Limit Line,” and both sides managed the mini-crisis […]Continue Reading
The Covid-19 pandemic radically changed our relationship with cities. This shouldn’t be news to anyone but the changes will have long-lasting effects on the global economy and, perhaps more important, the production of culture. In the West, cities are critical hubs of commerce and intellectual activity. From office space to corner restaurants, cities require a […]Continue Reading
Southeast Asia’s second-largest and once one of its most dynamic economies is struggling under the weight of an aging population, a deteriorating education system and low-yield rice farming. Thailand looks trapped as a middle-income country, unable to get rich, and stuck between a younger, dynamic Vietnam and a larger Indonesia. Getting out of its economic […]Continue Reading
Sri Lanka’s fiscal situation has been facing turmoil since the global financial crisis of 2008 as well as the 26-year-long civil war that ended in 2009, draining the country of valuable resources over the years. The present economic breakdown is a result of various political missteps, which cascaded into the collapse of the political administration […]Continue Reading
Xi Jinping’s clean sweep in elevating trusted allies to the commanding heights of the Chinese Communist Party is a political outcome that has implications beyond China’s borders. Xi sits virtually unchallenged, for the time being, at the apex of a political organization that oversees a country with the world’s second-largest economy, a rapidly modernizing military […]Continue Reading
Taiwan and the US plan to jointly manufacture weapons to firm up Taipei’s defenses against a possible China invasion, a move that could spike already high and rising tensions around the self-governing island. Last week, Nikkei reported that initial discussions have commenced on joint US-Taiwan weapons production, an arrangement that would see US defense companies […]Continue Reading
The professional China commentariat and its echo chamber in the Western media were blindsided by the appointment of Shanghai party head Li Qiang as the country’s premier, the number two position to Xi Jinping. Li is a tech-savvy supporter of high-tech entrepreneurship who believes that China’s future lies in the digital economy. Xi, the Western […]Continue Reading
Western nations’ declaration of liberalism is questionable. Certainly, Western citizens treasure liberal values, but this tendency doesn’t naturally translate into their foreign policies, as claimed. Western nations’ economic and military supremacy has empowered them to dominate the world politically. This has led Western governments to perceive liberalism as a notion that is administered top-down toward the rest […]Continue Reading
Asian Americans voted in record numbers in the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, as well as in the 2018 midterm elections. They are also the fastest-growing racial group in the country, with the population increasing by 81% between 2000 and 2019. As political scientists who have written about electoral politics in America and abroad, […]Continue Reading
China has scored another first in high-speed railway technology. After operating the world’s fastest commercial maglev train since 2003, China is now testing a much faster system that reportedly zooms at over 80% of the speed of sound. Referred to as an “electromagnetic sled,” the train has a top speed of 1,030 kilometers (640 miles) […]Continue Reading