Asia

Created
Sun, 26/02/2023 - 04:55
The ‘your atrocity is worse than my atrocity’ argument at the core of Richard Cribb’s response to Richard Culllen over Japan needs to be handled with care. Japan’s apologists can and do point to the very civilised treatment of Russian and German prisoners in the China wars at the beginning of the last century. They Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 25/02/2023 - 04:55
In Asian Media this week: Pyongyang using Pacific as firing range. Plus: opposing views on Asian security; democracy-vs-autocracy a false division; China’s population to plummet; Thailand’s global standing at low point; man-made threat to sea life. North east Asia became even more perilous this week, with North Korea launching three ballistic missiles, including an ICBM Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 21/02/2023 - 04:51
Richard Cullen’s article, ‘Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally’, published in Pearls and Irritations (5 Jan. 2023) is an unfortunate piece of historical muck-raking. The core of his argument is that Japan’s record as a brutal imperialist power in the years 1895 to 1945 disqualifies it now, and presumably until further notice, from Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 06/02/2023 - 04:56
We live in an integrated and connected world, not well understood by political leaders or military moguls. Nowhere is this more important than in East Asia. Destructive action towards important neighbours who are central to our trade with the world is of course contrary to our national strategic interests. We should not sit silent. For Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 06/02/2023 - 04:57
Australia has been persuaded, enticed and strongarmed into taking gravely dangerous decisions. But Australia is a sovereign state and its fingerprints are, ultimately, all over the formation of its terrible abdication of national independence. We need to pay particular attention to a definitive insight advanced by Paul Keating: Taiwan is not a vital Australian interest. Continue reading »