Eastern Asia
Record slump in Japan: a sign of deepening global recession
By Peter Symonds, February 18, 2009
Economic data released on Monday revealed that the world’s second largest economy contracted at an annualised rate of 12.7 percent for the final quarter of 2008—the steepest decline since 1974. De...
Asia’s export economies in free fall
By John Chan, February 14, 2009
Staggering falls in exports across Asia have ended all claims that the global slump may be nearing its bottom.
US general menaces North Korea with the “military option”
By Peter Symonds, February 11, 2009
A provocative threat against North Korea by the top US general in South Korea is a clear indication that President Obama intends to continue the Bush administration’s belligerent stance toward Pyong...
Millions of job losses threaten to trigger social unrest in China
By Carol Divjak, February 10, 2009
With up to 26 million internal migrant workers are now jobless, the Chinese government is facing an unemployment crisis far worse than in the late 1990s, when lay-offs of more than 30 million workers ...
Chinese regime rediscovers the working class
By John Chan, December 30, 2008
For decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has presided over the most rapacious forms of capitalism.
Growing signs of workers’ unrest in China
By John Chan, December 22, 2008
A series of protests in China, involving state enterprise workers, labourers laid off from export firms as well as teachers, taxi drivers and demobilised soldiers, point to growing social unrest.
Japanese government flounders amid worsening recession
By John Chan, December 18, 2008
Less than three months after assuming office, the future of Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso is in doubt as both the economy and his government’s approval ratings have plunged sharply.
China on the verge of unemployment explosion
By John Chan, December 15, 2008
After 30 years as a giant cheap labour platform for the world’s major corporations, China cannot avoid being dragged into the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. With the economy slowing rapi...
North Asian summit: an empty show of unity
December 13, 2008
The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will meet today for their first-ever joint summit. While the meeting is billed as a show of Asian unity in the face of the deepening global economic crisis,...
South Korean economy heading toward negative growth in 2009
By John Chan, December 12, 2008
There are growing signs that the world’s 13th largest economy, the Republic of Korea, is among the most vulnerable to the global financial crisis. The latest forecasts point to an economic contracti...
China’s economic growth rate continues to tumble
By John Chan, December 5, 2008
The Chinese regime is clearly in a crisis over how to deal with the increasingly severe global recession, which is already producing widespread plant closures, rising unemployment and social unrest.
Chinese president tours America’s “backyard”
By John Chan, November 29, 2008
Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visits to Costa Rica, Cuba and his presence in Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last week testified to Beijing’s more assertive economic a...
