Military Spending: In the face of an expansionist China seeking to dominate the East and South China Seas, Tokyo has set its largest defense budget ever to help defend islands that it rightfully considers Japanese territory. As its military, economy and ambitions grow, so too does China’s assertiveness about control of the Yellow Sea, the […]
The Chinese government has opened an official website which endorses China’s position towards the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The website, www.diaoyudao.org.cn, is accessible in Chinese under the isles Chinese name, the Diaoyu Islands. According to this blog from the New York Times, the home page of the site opens to a Chinese national flag next to […]
NEW YORK – Japan should take its disagreements with China over the Senkaku Islands to the International Court of Justice, Jerome Cohen, a New York University law professor and expert in Chinese law, said in an interview. “I want Japan to use international law,” Cohen said, stressing that Japan should follow in the steps of […]
Recently released British government files attest to a prior agreement between Japan and China to shelve their territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The files record a 1982 conversation between Zenko Suzuki and Margaret Thatcher, then the prime ministers of Japan and the U.K., respectively. In that conversation, Suzuki told Thatcher that he had reached […]
China’s shift away from muscle-flexing and a confluence of interests with a US-led order offer hope it will not continue to engender large-scale regional instability next year, says Yoon Young-kwan CHINA spent much of 2014 seeking to revive a concept that Japan proclaimed seven decades ago, when it was an imperial power seeking to impose […]
A nudge by air in 2013. A probe by sea in 2014. Will China take a crack on land in 2015? For the sake of world peace, let’s hope not. However, China’s nudge and probe record, especially over the last two years, should worry diplomats and alert headline writers. In 2013, China tested Japanese and […]
Is it time for Japan to consider acquiring nuclear weapons? What about America’s nuclear forces? Are they the right size for today’s challenging international landscape? TNI’s Executive Editor, Harry J. Kazianis, spoke with Christine M. Leah, a postdoctoral Grand Strategy Fellow at Yale University to explore these topics and more. Also, please see Ms. Leah’s […]
A nudge by air in 2013. A probe by sea in 2014. Will China take a crack on land in 2015? For the sake of world peace, let’s hope not. However, China’s nudge and probe record, especially over the last two years, should worry diplomats and alert headline writers. In 2013, China tested Japanese and […]
BEIJING: China has advised Japan to stay on the ” path of peace”. The advice comes after newly elected prime minister Shinzo Abe picked a pro-militarization politician, Gen Nakatani, as the new defence minister. “It is our position that whoever serves as the defence minister of Japan, the Japanese side should follow the path of […]
One month ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies launched a new web-based program, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. The premise of this project will be familiar to many of you: maritime competition in Asia has been steadily increasing in recent years, and doing so in an environment of informational opacity. Maritime geography makes it […]