China Archives - Page 31 of 78 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Rekindling China-Japan Conflict: The Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands Clash

by Tanaka Sakai | Sep 29, 2010

Why did the Japan Coast Guard, on September 7th, arrest a Chinese fishing boat captain and detain his ship, setting off the most serious China-Japan conflict in decades? Investigative journalist Tanaka Sakai offers no definitive answer in the following historically-and geopolitically-informed analysis of the roots of the conflict. He does show, definitively, that the Japanese action marked a striking departure from policies that have been in effect since at least 1978 when China and Japan resumed diplomatic relations and Deng Xiaoping crafted an agreement to defer action on competing claims to the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands.

Would a U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan Drive India Into China’s Arms?

by Russ Wellen | Sep 22, 2010

Much as the United States needs to withdraw from Afghanistan, it needs to keep in mind the effects that our military standdown would have on India.

Review: ‘China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’

by Anna Kalinina | Aug 4, 2010

“Why would China jeopardize its relationship with the United States, the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, and much of Southeast Asia to sustain the Khmer Rouge and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to postwar Cambodia?” asks Sophie Richardson in China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. An advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson not only offers an explanation of China’s foreign policy but also dispels the notion that it is irrational, inherently threatening, and malevolent. Through careful historical examination, Richardson argues that a set of beliefs, referred to as the five principles of peaceful coexistence, have been driving Chinese foreign policy since the 1954 Geneva Conference.

Review: ‘Fixing Fractured Nations’

by Greg Chaffin | Aug 2, 2010

In their book, Fixing Fractured Nations: The Challenge of Ethnic Separatism in the Asia-Pacific, editors Robert G. Wirsing and Ehsan Ahari compiled essays on several of the major ethnic conflicts that have plagued the Asian continent over the past several decades. The book provides a comprehensive study of major ethnic conflict throughout Asia with sections on Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands (with a focus on Papua New Guinea). In the concluding chapter, Ehrari places each of the essays into a geopolitical context shaped by the Cold War and by 9/11.

South Korea Odd Man Out in Cheonan Outcome

by Russ Wellen | Jul 24, 2010

Thanks to U.S. diplomatic blundering, China ekes out a victory over Cheonan.

Sri Lanka’s Wartime Abuses

by Vishal Arora | Jun 25, 2010

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in India earlier this month making promises to resettle the war-displaced Sri Lankan Tamil minority one year after his government’s forces won a crippling victory over the Tamil Tiger insurgency. But can he deliver on his pledge and begin the healing of Sri Lanka’s deep ethinc wounds?

Stealth Superpower

by John Feffer | Jun 14, 2010

The future is no longer in plastics, as the businessman in the 1967 film The Graduate insisted. Rather, the future is in China.

Can Beijing and Moscow Help with Tehran?

by Ehsan Ahrari, John Feffer | Dec 30, 2009

The real test of President Barack Obama’s dealing with China and Russia will be whether he can persuade them to support U.S. pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear weapons aspirations. Obama is reported to have lobbied China on that issue during his recent visit. He also broached the topic with Russia in the recent past for the same purpose, but with little success. Iran denies wanting to join the nuclear club, but Washington has no faith in those denials.

Geneva Conventions Still Hold Up

by Kenneth Roth | Dec 30, 2009

What needs rewriting is not the Geneva Conventions but Israel’s abusive and illegal war strategy.

Clinton Tone-Deaf During Africa Trip

by John Feffer, Francis Njubi Nesbitt | Aug 21, 2009

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-day trip to Africa, which came less than a month after President Barack Obama’s visit to Egypt and Ghana in July, was an attempt to emphasize Africa’s importance to the United States. Clinton was supposed to reassure African leaders that the Obama administration intends to engage with the continent, despite wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and perennial problems in Israel and the Korean peninsula.