Eastern Asia
Western media steps up pressure on China over Iran
By John Chan, October 8, 2009
As US pressure escalates against Iran over its nuclear programs, a distinct anti-China undercurrent has appeared in the media over Beijing’s resistance to backing punitive new sanctions against Tehr...
Sixty years after the Chinese Revolution: Lessons for the working class
By John Chan, October 1, 2009
Communist Party bureaucrats today will join hands with the representatives of global capitalism in toasting the formation of the Peoples Republic of China. These celebrations are not at variance with ...
Former Taiwanese president jailed for life
By John Chan, September 23, 2009
In a highly political court decision on September 11, former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian was sentenced to life imprisonment, fined $6.1 million and stripped of his civil rights.
Anti-government rally on third anniversary of Thai coup
By John Roberts, September 21, 2009
The opposition is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Democratic Party-led government.
World Economic Forum: False hopes in a China-led recovery
By John Chan, September 18, 2009
Corporate leaders and officials gathered in Dalian to pay homage to China as the bright spot of global capitalism. However, closer examination reveals that the Chinese economy is just as fragile as it...
Democrat government installed in Japan
By Peter Symonds, September 17, 2009
The Hatoyama government is the end product of a lengthy process that followed the break-up of the post-war relationships in the 1970s and 1980s. Powerful sections of the establishment concluded that a...
US-China trade tensions sharply escalate
By John Chan, September 16, 2009
In a move that threatens to trigger a major trade conflict, US President Barack Obama last Friday signed an order to impose a 35 percent tariff on Chinese-made tyre imports over the next three years.
Japan: Democrats prepare to slash public spending
By Peter Symonds, September 11, 2009
Even before it is sworn into office, the Hatoyama government is preparing to make deep cuts to the previous government’s stimulus spending.
Ethnic tensions flare again in China’s Xinjiang region
By John Chan, September 10, 2009
Ethnic turmoil erupted again last week in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, when Han Chinese protesters demanded the resignation of the provincial CCP secretary over a series of syringe attac...
The historic decline of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party
By Peter Symonds, September 9, 2009
The ignominious electoral collapse of the LDP amid the greatest global economic crisis since the 1930s is another sign that politics, not only in Japan but internationally, is entering uncharted and s...
Japan’s election: Divided Democrats prepare for office
By John Chan, September 7, 2009
The Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory in the country’s general elections on August 30. Yet despite its control of both houses of parliament, the next government will not be in a stro...
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung dies
By John Chan, September 3, 2009
Behind the rhetoric about “democracy” and “peace”, Kim represented the interests of sections of the Korean bourgeoisie who had been marginalised under the US-backed military dictatorship.
