The Economist (March 20)
Last week China slapped down democracy in Hong Kong. The imposition of tight mainland control over the territory is not just a tragedy for the 7.5m people who live there, it is also a measure of China’s determination not to compromise over how it asserts its will.” But China has pressure points. It is “more tightly coupled with the West than communist Russia ever was. This presents the free world with an epoch-defining question: how should it best secure prosperity, lower the risk of war and protect freedom as China rises?”
Tags: China, Communist, Compromise, Control, Democracy, Hong Kong, Imposition, Mainland, Prosperity, Risk, Russia, Territory, War
Wall Street Journal (January 1)
“The crackdown continues in Hong Kong, and this week the Chinese government made an example of the territory’s most prominent political prisoners.” Beijing has now adopted “Soviet or North Korean behavior, and we hope that Joe Biden and his officials will speak plainly against it.”
Tags: Behavior, Beijing, Biden, Chinese, Crackdown, Government, Hong Kong, North Korean, Political prisoners, Prominent, Soviet, Territory
Bloomberg (October 18)
“When Gen Nakatani arrives in Seoul on Tuesday he’ll be the first Japanese defense minister to visit South Korea in nearly five years, signaling that growing regional security risks are trumping the disputes over territory and history that have blighted relations between the countries.”
Tags: Defense minister, Disputes, History, Japan, Nakatani, Security risks, South Korea, Territory
The Economist (November 30, 2013)
“Plenty of countries establish zones in which they require aircraft to identify themselves, but they tend not to be over other countries’ territory.” China’s unilateral declaration of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over Japanese territory has also heightened tension between the U.S. and China. “This face-off marks the most worrying strategic escalation between the two countries since 1996, when China’s then president, Jiang Zemin, ordered a number of exclusion zones for missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, leading America to send two aircraft-carriers there.”
Tags: ADIZ, Aircraft, Aircraft-carriers, China, Escalation, Exclusion zones, Face-off, Jiang Zemin, Missile tests, Taiwan Strait, Tension, Territory, U.S.
