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Philip Cunningham
For Philip Cunningham's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2023
Xi's speech echoes a second coming of Mao
Chinese leader Xi Jinping's year-end speech is very much attune to Communist Party mythology and shows where his mind lies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2016
Little blue dots in a big red sea
The Democrat foisted the tired Clinton dynasty on a struggling rust-belt nation and stumbled badly.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2004
Thailand paying the price for flu coverup
BANGKOK -- Thai politicians belatedly ceded center stage to the public health experts as a strategy was mapped out to curb and contain the rapidly spreading avian flu. Until Jan. 23, the Thai government emphatically and continuously denied, in the face of mounting evidence and allegations of a coverup, that Thailand had been hit by avian flu. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went as far as taking a few bites of fried chicken on TV to convince the Thai people, and the world, that there was no bird flu in Thailand and that Thai chicken was indeed safe to eat.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001
Kim Jong Il's quaint trip to Moscow
BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in its governance and almost laughable in its personality cult-centered ideology.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2001
U.S., China vie in bending the truth
Diplomacy, as much as the warfare it is designed to prevent, exacts a heavy toll on the truth. One can only wonder what future generations will learn with disbelief and chagrin when the Freedom of Information Act allows public examination of U.S.-China foreign policy intrigue in recent years.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001
Lee remains in the limelight
Cornell University, standing like a fortress atop a verdant hilltop in upstate New York, is isolated and serene, far from war and the worries of the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2001
Thais make an enemy out of Myanmar
No one knows who put a bomb on a Thai Airways jet scheduled to carry Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to Chiang Mai, but respected media outlets such as the Matichon newspaper and the Bangkok Post have hinted that the bombing may have something to do with drugs from Myanmar.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2000
Falling victim to U.S.-Chinese diplomacy
A 46-year-old man named Zhang Hongbao from Harbin, China is facing an uncertain fate in a cramped U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services detention cell in the U.S. territory of Guam. On one hand he is just another illegal immigrant, joining thousands of other Chinese who have attempted to settle in the United States without proper papers. On the other hand, Zhang is anything but your ordinary immigrant. He's a wealthy businessman and the leader of Zhong Gong, a mass qigong (traditional Chinese exercise) movement in China that claims some 38 million followers.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 22, 2000
An evening out in Hua Hin, the classiest beach town in Thailand
HUA HIN, Thailand -- Like any town in Thailand, Hua Hin has its share of stray dogs, especially near the temple grounds. In this proud provincial town of sandy beaches, sea breezes and clean streets, however, even the stray mutts look healthier.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2000
A tale of two protests in Bangkok and Beijing
BANGKOK -- Last week, rural adherents of the Falun Gong movement in China surreptitiously made their way from provincial towns to stage short-lived protests in the heart of Beijing's Tiananmen Square. At the same time in rural Thailand, thousands of Thai peasants boarded trains for Bangkok to take an anti-dam protest to the heart of the city in front of Thailand's Government House.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 19, 2000
New Thai museum puts opium in perspective
BANGKOK -- How can drugs be explained in a way that informs but does not preach? Is it possible for educators to get beyond the knee-jerk response that stigmatizes drugs and drug consumers and presents the bare facts? What are the facts?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2000
Thai villagers protest dam's legacy of destruction
BANGKOK -- The Moon River is the lifeline of Isan, bringing sustenance to the poorest, most populous part of Thailand. The World Bank identified the Moon, the greatest of the Mekong River's tributaries, as a suitable location for a giant dam, and proceeded to fund a hydropower project that is destroying the traditional way of life in a picturesque river basin of self-sufficient villages.
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2000
Rocking out to bicultural rhythms
BANGKOK -- Hundreds of kids line up patiently outside the air-conditioned convention hall for an hour, only to learn the hottest, cheapest concert of the month has just been sold out. The logo for the event is the Japanese flag, a red sun on a field of white, bearing the English words: Asia 2000 Music Festival.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2000
The ADB finds itself in the maelstrom
"Globalization is killing poor people!"
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000
Taking it to the skies of Bangkok
On the anniversary of the King's 72nd birthday in December 1999, the revolutionary concept of electricallypowered mass transit finally hit Bangkok, a city long dependent on the noisy, noxious, internal combustion engine. Two short elevated lines, totaling 23.7 km of track, were built at a cost of 54.9 billion baht (about $1.3 billion). The narrow-gauge train, often only three or four cars long, glides over busy intersections, winds past office towers and allows curious commuters to ogle at the private estates, swimming pools and exclusive sports clubs below.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 1999
Taiwan quake shakes China's mandate
BEIJING -- Chinese news coverage of the killer earthquake in Taiwan has been both muted and sporadic, ranging from solicitous concern for the rogue province to no news at all. When the earthquake did get print or air time in the week following the temblor, coverage tended to focus on what mainland authorities, ranging from China's Red Cross to Beijing-based seismologists, had to say.

Longform

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