(To put an end to the irony of me promising a post for two years that never materialize, I’ve finally put together the last post on the “what and when” on Chinese political reform, basically, what it will entail at this stage and when it will happen. I have on numerous occasions said that substantial [...]
I’ve been living in the US for over a year now and what better time to give a description of my impressions than shortly after the election? I have to admit I expected the campaigning to be much more intense than it actually was here in my neighborhood, but this was also part of a [...]
We’ve all been hearing a lot about the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands lately, what with all the demonstrations in China after the Japanese government purchased the islands from the Japanese owner. Meanwhile, Taiwan is adding their opinion into the mix since three governments claim this territory. So, what’s really going on? What laws govern island ownership? Who [...]
Just as I was skeptical towards a previously reviewed book about North Korea, “The Aquariums in Pyongyang,” in B.R. Myers “The Cleanest Race” I instead thought that I had found the Rosetta Stone to understand the basic driving forces behind the leadership of the Kim family. Confounding Chinese, American and Japanese experts alike, the Democratic [...]
We’re getting to that time every four years when the United States has their presidential election. Both parties have chosen their nominees, not officially but that will happen soon at the conventions. I thought I’d take as objective a look as I possibly could at each candidate, not so much for our American readers as [...]
You’ve probably noticed we’ve been mostly absent over the last few months. Both Wukailong and I had been pretty busy with work and personal matters but we should be far more productive in the coming days. You might also have noticed that this blog has rarely if ever commented about breaking news in China. Two [...]
The “two meetings” in Beijing tend to be fairly uneventful political gatherings. Every once in a while someone makes a definite statement about something that’s been in doubt, and the prime minister is given the opportunity to show his wit at the international press conference. It was during one of these meetings that Zhu Rongji [...]
I have to admit I was skeptical of this book when I first saw it and I probably wouldn’t have read it if I hadn’t received it as a gift. The top of the cover says “[t]he terrifying memoir of life in North Korea that our nation’s leaders want you to read.” Our nation’s leaders? [...]
It’s in all the headlines. “Protesters Confront Apple Over Foxconn Conditions”, “Apple’s Foxconn Electronics Manufacturer Blamed for Chinese Child Slave Labor”, “Apple, Foxconn and the Human Cost of Electronics Manufacturing in China”, those are just a smattering of media reports that all say basically the same thing, that Apple is responsible for China’s labor laws, [...]
James Fallows wrote about a local Michigan Super Bowl commercial on his blog in The Atlantic yesterday. Some hack politician named Pete Hoekstra is running for his old seat in Congress against a Democratic opponent named Debbie Stabenow. He not so cleverly renames her “Debbie Spend-it-now” and tries to blame her for lost Michigan manufacturing [...]
There is something I find very puzzling that has been making the rounds for quite a few years that I’d like to address in this post, and that is the issue of jobs lost and gained in various economies and the reasons why. I’ll lay out the two sides and then explain what I found [...]
As most if not all of you have heard by now, yesterday Ma Ying-jeou was re-elected President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) with 51.6 percent of the vote. Tsai Ing-wen had a total of 45.6% while third party candidate James Soong Chu-yu ended up with a mere 2.7%. So what happened? How did Ma [...]
On Saturday, January 14th, the people of Taiwan will select their President along with various legislative seats. I was over at Michael Turton’s blog “The View from Taiwan” where he had commented and highlighted the report shown below in its entirety. After reading it, I felt it was not only fair to all sides, but very enlightening as far [...]
I have to admit that Kim Jong-Il’s demise took me by surprise. Certainly we knew he was ill, but that it had already reached this stage? The subsequent events, however, have been less of a surprise. Kim Jong-Un’s ascent to power has been known at least since 2009, and despite some of the speculations in [...]
On January 14, 2012, Taiwan ( ROC) will choose its next president. In this post, I’ll analyze the positions and histories of all three candidates, how they’ve waged their respective campaigns and which campaign issues really matter to the Taiwanese people. In the end, I’ll make a prediction based on how I see the race [...]
