talkpolitics | Entries tagged with asia

A few days ago, the SARS-CoV-19 virus reached two hundred million cases, with over four million dead. We know these numbers are almost certainly under-estimations based on data collection limits and comparisons of death rates from previous years. It is with the benefit of hindsight that we now realise that the entire year of 2020 was, in fact, "the first wave" of increasing infections which did not peak until early January 2021 at close to 840,000 new cases a day, and its nadir in mid-February at a mere 400,000. Since then we have witnessed the rise of the new and more contagious and deadly Delta variant which peaked at the end of April with 875,000 new cases as it overwhelmed India. That peak declined to a low of around 300,000 new daily cases in mid-June, only to rise again as the variant spread to densely populated regions in South-East Asia; at the time of writing the daily new case numbers are at 688,000 and are on an upwards trajectory.

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From the very start of this pandemic, there have been both warnings and effective solutions. We knew that excess human exploitation of the natural world pushes the probability of zootonic diseases and that this is a direct function of land clearing, the increasing consumption of animal proteins, and land privitisation. All of this was known, but public health is an externality to private profit. We know that the most effective way to develop a vaccine is through a fixed reward system with public disclosure to allow for the production of generics, and the mass distribution of these according to need. But again, private profits get in the way of good public health policy. Whilst presenting the best information and our best knowledge on economics and health is necessary, it is insufficient. We still live in a political economy in which both individuals and institutions care about their positional advantage first, and the facts second, and that will not change through goodwill alone. It requires the force of public protest and public organisation; the very lives of people depend on it.

luzribeiro

Another deal the Art-of-the-Deal dealmaker Trump has purposely excluded the US from because it wasn't His deal but most certainly is the result of the Trump Amexit strategy... creating void and watching it filled by the competition with US interest absent.

https://time.com/5912325/rcep-china-trade-deal-us/

When the wannabe fuhrer entertained his flat earth base by repudiating the Trans Pacific Partnership, the United States left its political and economic partners in Southeast Asia high and dry, and staring right in the face of China.

I'm fairly certain that Donald Trump never understood what the Trans Pacific Partnership actually was. On the campaign trail, he bellowed that it was bad because it would be good for China (which was excluded from it, and strongly opposed). Trump didn’t know what it is. His talk radio mob didn't either. All they knew was the cheer when Trump screamed “Chiner”.

What is the fallout?

The Chinese stepped in with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, to fill the void Trump created.

”Experts say the deal — while more symbolic than substantive — is a clear marker of both China’s power and waning American influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Even U.S. treaty allies like Japan, South Korea and Australia moved to strike a bargain with China in the absence of an alternative”.

So congrats, I guess. You sure have made America's rivals great again.

johnny9fingers

www.snopes.com/news/2020/04/21/vietnam-has-reported-no-coronavirus-deaths-how/

For the TL;DR chaps, basically by being incredibly fascist about things combined with testing and compulsory quarantine and some total lockdowns of villages and towns they've kept the numbers ridiculously low.

So it appears that states which opt for a totalitarian response combined with mandatory testing (the Vietnamese testing kits cost $25 each) can limit the infection rate and death toll.

And it seems that this virus has an odd pattern in any given nation. It targets liberal capitalist democracies with entrenched freedoms more than totalitarian nations, as well as targeting BAME folk within these liberal capitalist democracies more than other folk too.

The freer a nation is, the worse its death toll will be. Mind you, Australia and New Zealand have pretty good figures too, and they are liberal capitalist democracies - just they got their responses sorted in time. Unlike the UK and US, and poor old Italy; which never stood a chance being the canary in the mine, so to speak.

It is becoming apparent that there is a correlation between lower mortality rates, and swift and severely sensible responses; and a smidgeon of totalitarianism and the odd draconian measure also seems to help.

luzribeiro

Recently the US were supposed to leave Syria, and did not, or rather moved the troops to different locations in the Middle East. This was presumably due to the threat of Turkey invading the areas the US were stationed. Under that premise, maybe things are getting too hot for the troops located there and it would be better to move them farther out of missile range in other parts of Asia?

Although it has not made much news, North Korea is still testing missiles there. I wonder what the South Korean response would be, as of yet they have not commented. Yet, Trump's next move was stunning...

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LOL. You have a nice place here. Would you like to see it stay that way, or would you like for it to be exposed to people that would like to harm it? Oh, you'd like to keep it huh? Well it will only cost you 400% more. That's Trump's "Art of the Deal".

What a wonderful idea for isolationists and a horrible one for everyone else.

johnny9fingers

And the Sri Lankans, and the rest of us have to consider our response.

We already have a good idea of what our own lunatic fringe will do. Apparently, these bombings were in response to the Christchurch assault. Everything is a response to something, and the innocent victims of Christchurch and the innocent victims of the Sri Lankan bombings are all in the same category; that of innocent victims. But I wonder just how mad, evil bombers consider innocent people acceptable targets for their campaigns?

Until now, in Sri Lanka, Catholics and Muslims had been regarded as a collective non-Buddhist/non-Hindu minority in a complicated arrangement of ethnicities and religions. Both groups complained of the same prejudices and there was some solidarity between them; the soldarity of the slightly marginal.

This does appear to be an attempt to foment a clash of cultures, much as the Christchurch assault was; the difference being of course that here in the UK, post the Jo Cox murder, our Intelligence and Security services try to keep an eye on our right-wing loonies, and have a track record of preventing them from executing their evil, though many outliers escape detection. However, it seems the Sri Lankan police had information about this bombing plot two weeks before it happened; they also knew who was going to be carrying it out.

In the complicated ethnic and religious mix that is Sri Lanka somehow or other this information got overlooked. That's a bit unfortunate, given what happened.

So I come here asking questions of all of us:

How should we respond to the Sri Lankan bombing?
How should we respond to the IS claim?

They may seem like the same question, but I think a distinction exists between them. Because in the first, the inadequate response of the Sri Lankan authorities to the information they had needs to be fixed. And the causes for that inadequate response are complicated.

nairiporter

The Maldives are probably the last place that comes to mind when we talk of conflicts and tension. But now that Abdulla Yameen's autocratic regime has defied the opposition in its attempts to consolidate its power before the upcoming elections, there are concerns that the situation could lead to a crisis involving China and India who are competing in the region of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives are looking likely to become the next front of their geopolitical stand-off.

State of emergency declared as protests erupt at holiday hotspot

Yameen declared a state of emergency earlier this month, after the chairman of the supreme court was arrested. The opposition called for international intervention and ousting the head of state, while he complained of a coup against him. Yameen asked China for support because of their close relations. He has attracted considerable Chinese investments in the Maldives in recent years, as part of China's ambitions to re-establish their trade routes and use them to project power abroad.

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kiaa

There's an old children's book, Mr Thur Thur. It's about a false giant. The further you go from him, the bigger he looks. And the closer you step, the more he shrinks. Facing him directly, you'd just see an old man who can't scare anyone.

From Xi Jinping's vantage point, Trump may've resembled Mr Thur Thur during their meeting. While Trump was touring Vietnam and the Philippines, he was assertive and sharp and menacing about China - from a safe distance. He was fuming over the currency war, and China's theft of intellectual property, etc. He even threatened China with sanctions and trade restrictions.

And then he visited China. Suddenly he was soft like a puppy, praising his Chinese counterpart, admiring his might and political prowess. As if flattery would impress anyone who's not a kindergartener. Hey, Trump even temporarily changed his Twitter photo to one where he's posing at the Forbidden City in Beijing alongside his Chinese host. Suddenly the ominous giant was nowhere to be seen.

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johnny9fingers

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/11/un-myanmars-treatment-of-rohingya-textbook-example-of-ethnic-cleansing

When even Aung San Suu Kyi can't or won't speak out against this some folk wonder why some of us get a bit picky about even casual stereotyping. Personally, I monitor my own responses to things, trying to make sure they fit in with my values, not my prejudices. It doesn't always work, obviously, because apart from being a self-righteous prig, I'm also human; frail in courage, and aware of my frailty.

Good ol' Desmond Tutu, an honourable and decent chap, with a track record of burying his personal prejudices in favour of his values and beliefs, has actually written to Aung San Suu Kyi urging her to remember her heroism, and rekindle it in the cause of justice.

Now, the matter may appear to be complicated by the fact that the Rohingya are Muslim, and a number of generations previous hailed from Bengal. And the people of Myanmar are Buddhists, that most peaceful of religions. Also, the Bengalis were invited to what was then Burma by the British Empire, as the Empire also relocated many thousands of Indians throughout the world. (Which may be why the Indians were expelled from various countries in Africa, as the African nations adopted the fasces of nationalism in their quest for national identity. Such governments evidently so worried about Indian domination of business and commerce, that mere decades down the line they were happy to sell their natural resources to China for infrastructure development. It's almost like the British building the railways in India, but cleverer.)

Be that as it may, what do the panel think about those nice peaceful Buddhists committing acts of ethnic cleansing against those awful Muslim chaps? And is it time to round up all the Nobel peace prize winners and jail them, just on sus, of course, having profiled the observable criminal acts committed by some of the winners since Kissinger? Of course these are the exceptions; most peace prizes going to spectacularly great-souled folk like Malala Yousafzai or Desmond Tutu. But until recently I would have tried to shoehorn Aung San Suu Kyi into that group.

And in some respects this is why we monitor ourselves and each other as part of a community; to prevent ourselves from succumbing to our baser natures. Else we would rend and slash and slay our way though our short lives on our path to painful death.

Other people may be hell, as Sartre opined, but they sure as hell civilise us.

abomvubuso

A huge empty city, but not like those in China. It's a capital, the capital of Myanmar. Built in the middle between the country's two biggest cities, intended to prevent any colour revolutions through sheer size and city planning. Fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

First, some context:

3 die in protests after South Korean president removed from office

China plans to increase number of Marine Corps from 20,000 to 100,000 to boost global presence

What's the connection, you may ask. Well, do bear with me. See, three people have died in the riots in Seoul that followed the verdict of the Constitutional court that confirmed the removal of president Park Geun-hye because of big abuse of power. There were protests for and against her on the streets around the court, and the drama eventually boiled over into clashes with the police forces. Hence the casualties. Both crying and jubilant people filled the news reports coming from various correspondents covering the events. Even foreign journalists were mildly hurt amidst all the chaos.

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luvdovz.livejournal.com

Funny how everyone hated the TPP, but now it's straight from Jesus since Trump killed it and they are suddenly finding how good it was. The destruction of protective laws, the environment, and worker's rights by corporations and other talking points are now totally forgotten, eh?

Which is not to say that Trump isn't being typically stupid and short-sighted about it all. Shall I predict exactly how much effort he had put into studying the TPP before scuttling it? Better not.

The thing is, he's in such a hurry to get adulation from his fans, that he ignores the long-term consequences. Dropping TPP essentially gives China a wide open field for its own East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. That's the big problem with Trump (among many others): he is one-dimensional in his thinking. He can only see the possible short-term loss of jobs and not the long-term consequences of turning Asia completely over to China.

Someone please alert Sen. Bernie Sanders about the great news, because he and most of his supporters didn't like the TPP at all. Turns out Bernie is ultimately on the same page like Trump on TPP. Feel the Bern, yo!

tcpip.livejournal.com

For more than two months there have been massive protests in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), demanding that President Park Geun-hye step down. The protests have been the largest since the the June Democratic Uprising of 1987 which forced the end of a military dictatorship. As a result of relative cultural isolation, there was not exactly enormous commentary of the events in the Anglophone press, although the events themselves were reported in a matter-of-fact sort of manner.

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The continuing interest in the influence of the daughter of a cult-leader over the president of RoK is fascinating itself as an oddball story. But that in itself is not sufficient to explain the collapse in their public support or that millions of people took the streets demanding their resignation. The cause of that - and keeping in mind that the big protests occurred after the financial revelations - was undoubtedly the massive degree of corruption and extortion between RoK's government and the chaebol, the conservative, paternalistic, corporate families. The personal shame of Park Geun-hye is that she was caught; the national shame of the Republic of Korea is that this corporate-government collusion is business as usual. The reaction from millions of ordinary Koreans who are tired and angry is understandable enough, even if is not understand by many corporate and government leaders. What is being witnessed here is the most significant transformation in the opinion of Korean people towards their governing and corporate elites in over thirty years.

Thanks to Derick Y., in Seoul, for his advice and information

mahnmut.livejournal.com

Case-in-point as per the monthly topic: The Philippines. Their bombastic president Rodrigo Duterte has become prominent for showing the middle finger to America, actually calling Obama a sonofabitch, and generally turning his back on the US interests in the Pacific. Last month he ordered a halt to his nation's long-time military alliance with the US (read: being a US puppet), and got entangled in a bitter war of words with the global empire. Now he's ordering the US troops to leave the country, and America to stop treating the Philippines "as a doormat".

( To put this into perspective... )

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

Recently relevant case in point: Laos. Obama did try to heal old wounds while visiting the South-East Asian country. He was actually the first US president to visit Laos - ever. Still, the country has half a century old grudge with the US. The American invasion in Laos had all the features of a horror thriller movie from the Vietnam War times. One only with losing sides in it. And the biggest loser of them all was of course the people of Laos.

They were relentlessly bombed by the US between 1964 and 1973. The first 5 years were actually secret war - even the US Congress was kept in the dark about it. The US unloaded over 2 million tons of bombs over Laos, many of them never exploding. 1/3 of the country is still covered with cluster bombs today, many are still taking lives. Some regions will probably never be fully cleaned.

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mahnmut.livejournal.com

To all those who keep ranting about the "War on Christmas", this should put things into perspective a little bit.

The super-rich ruler who stones gays, now bans Christmas: Sultan of Brunei threatens Muslims who celebrate it with up to five years in prison while Christians must keep theirs secret

- Christmas trees, carols and even Santa hats are off in the Borneo nation
- Muslims caught celebrating are threatened with up to five years in prison
- The nation's non-Muslims are allowed to celebrate in their communities
- But revealing their celebrations to Muslims would also lead to jail time
- In 2014 the country introduced an anti-gay Sharia Penal Code, which includes the execution of any Muslim for sodomy
- The sultan owns the hotel chain with the Beverly Hills Hotel and Dorchester among others - and those properties are decked out Christmas

( Ranty rant is ranty. )

politic-zone.livejournal.com

Originally posted by

politic_zone at ISIS frightens China?

Even powerful sees threat for Asia region. I found a chinese magazine in NZ. According to the translation, it is talked about possible invasion of ISIS in asian territories.

As we know there are several reasons of being afraid. China has problems with Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. . And China's authorities may be think the same way.
This region is a place of East Turkestan Islamic Movement activities. This group is fighting for creation Sharia islamic state. I guess, there will be a lot of interested in supporting this idea. In 2008 there were demonstrations and terrorists attacks in China. Fighters claimed independence. China saw how ISIS become a real state. So, the Celestial Empire does not want it's part to become a new caliphate.

abomvubuso.livejournal.com

In 1950, the world looked quite different from what it is now. Exhausted from the war, Germany and France relinquished their leading positions as economic juggernauts, and minor countries like New Zealand and Venezuela joined the pack. But none of those turned into a world leader - and for a reason.

Fast-forward to 2050, and the world will certainly look very different from today. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers research (*.pdf) forecasts that the G7 countries will have handed their primacy to that part of the world which commenter Fareed Zakaria would call "The Rest". China and India are on their way to becoming the leaders in terms of GDP (at market-price estimates).

The reseach has examined the world's 32 largest economies, which produce 3/4 of the world's wealth. But there's one thing its authors may've overlooked. It's the question whether economic weight necessarily means political influence and leadership. That's what's causing both hopes and concerns to the 7 largest developing economies (Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, called "E-7" by the PwC). For instance, before fulfilling the predictions of the analysts about "Asia's Century", the likes of China and India would have to find long-term solutions to seemingly trivial problems like education, hygiene, public health, and sustainable development. In China's case, there's also the pressing issue of the smooth transition from a planned economy to a market economy. The more these economies grow (and their appetites for global leadership, respectively), the bigger these problems will be getting.

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luvdovz.livejournal.com

If we're to believe the Uzbek intelligence, scouting units of the Islamic State have now appeared on the Turkmen and Uzbek borders. Meanwhile, Kyrgyz experts claim that the Islamic State has put aside 70 million dollars for the destabilization of the situation in the fiercely contested Fergana valley, the place where the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan meet.

The IS themselves have already announced the appointment of an "Emir", plus the establishment of a 12-member council which is to rule the so called Khurasan region, believing that in the future it'll be encompassing all five Central Asian republics plus Pakistan, Afghanistan, parts of Iran, China and India. They say an army of 10 thousand strong is now at the Central Asian borders.

( A storm is coming to Central Asia )

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Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with asia

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Amexit backfiring

Covid19: now here's interesting data...

That's how you treat your friends... NOT.

So Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan Church Bombings.

Between the dragon and the elephant

The phony giant

Why eternal vigilance and self monitoring is needed.

The ghost capital

South Korea at a crossroads

The Don brings the Bern!

Shame of the Nation: President Park Geun-hye of South Korea

Going rogue: The Philippines

Hybrid warfare is as old as they go

That's what I call a war on Christmas!

ISIS frightens China?

The Asian century

Russia's backyard trouble

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May 2025

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