Asia

“Senseless and baseless.” That was how a top Chinese official described claims that China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which officially launched in 2013, had caused economic hardship in developing countries. Indeed, much has been written about the potential...

Technically, Japan and Russia are still at war. Although Japan surrendered to the Allies in September 1945, ending World War II, Moscow and Tokyo have never signed an official peace treaty. A territorial dispute over four islands between Japan’s...

Three years ago, roughly two million of Hong Kong’s seven million residents took to the streets to protest against a bill that would have allowed its residents to be extradited to China to be tried under its laws. Police...

During a press conference in Tokyo on May 23, a reporter asked President Joseph Biden, “Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” The president responded with a clear answer: “Yes ....

India has long prided itself on its strategically independent or non-aligned foreign policy.  But the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War has put India’s approach to strategic independence under an international spotlight.  Although Indian leaders have often stated that their country’s strategic...

Military bases are no rarity in the Asia-Pacific.  That is hardly a surprise given the frequency and length of conflicts that were waged across the region for much of the twentieth century.  But, in the decade-and-a-half after the Cold...

In a speech on Chinese threats to U.S. national security on January 31, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Wray emphasized ongoing attempts by the People’s Republic of China to spy on American companies and steal...

Alerted to their vulnerability on rare earths (REEs) when China threatened to withhold supplies to Japan in September 2010, industrialized countries began to be concerned with developing alternate sources.  For Japan in particular, REEs are indispensable to the production...

During the early 2010s, developing countries were keen to get in on the global trade boom that brought prosperity to many countries, most famously China, over the prior quarter century.  At the Asian-African Conference in 2015, Chinese General Secretary...

Rare earth metals or “rare earths,” a collection of 17 elements that are valued for their conductive and magnetic properties, have made headlines again.  Over the past year and a half, their prices have risen to levels not seen...