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August 29, 2025

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COMMENTARY

Jan 15, 2005

Geopolitical jockeying leads to more aid

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- The outpouring of sympathy and support for survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami continues around the world, providing striking testament to humanity's willingness to help each other in times of need.

COMMENTARY

Jan 14, 2005

Busting tired political myths

By David Howell

LONDON -- Opinion polls continue to put the British Labour Party well ahead of other parties, and the general expectation of the political pundits is that Prime Minister Tony Blair will win yet again when the general election comes, most probably on May 5.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 11, 2005

Daunting U.S. tasks in Asia

By Michael H. Armacost

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- President George W. Bush has claimed a renewed mandate and has reshuffled his national securit team. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will become Secretary of State, and Steve Hadley will move up at the National Security Council. Richard Armitage and Jim Kelly, who have...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2005

Why does CCP still fret over the news?

By David Wall

LONDON -- A short while ago, when I was in Beijing, I wanted to keep up with some political development in Hong Kong. I turned on my computer and went to the Asia-Pacific page of the BBC's Web site. Or at least I tried to; I had forgotten that the BBC site is blocked in China.

COMMENTARY

Jan 10, 2005

Improving Japan's leverage

By Keizo Nabeshima

To promote national interest in diplomacy, it is essential to set goals, establish basic policies to achieve them and work out overall strategies, while keeping in mind the links between individual goals and between those of nations and regions. However, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lacks such strategies....

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 10, 2005

U.S. has self to blame for weaker dollar

By Christopher Lingle

UBUD, Bali -- Earth to China-bashers: Beijing should not be blamed for America's trade deficits or for the weakness of the dollar. Those that believe so are confusing symptoms with causes. Other elements of conventional wisdom have it that there is some choice as to whether the exchange value of the...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 9, 2005

Betrayal of Dr. Schweitzer's message

By Cesar Chelala

LAMBARENE, Gabon -- I first learned of Dr. Albert Schweitzer's work when I was a medical student in the 1960s. During those years, the story of Schweitzer's efforts to improve the health of Africans in his hospital in Lambarene ignited my colleagues' and my imaginations. It was thus with a sense of privilege...

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 8, 2005

'Stingy' barbs don't stand up to scrutiny

By Richard Halloran

HONOLULU -- After the tsunami ravaged the shores of a dozen nations bordering the Indian Ocean, Americans were accused of being "stingy" in their response -- an allegation that does not stand up in the glare of hard fact.

COMMENTARY

Jan 7, 2005

Musharraf's penchant to stay in charge

By Farhan Bokhari

ISLAMABAD -- The prospect that Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- who seized power in a bloodless coup five years ago -- will remain head of the military looms as a major setback in the political outlook for South Asia's second-largest nuclear-armed country.

COMMENTARY / World

Jan 6, 2005

Finding succor in tragedy

By Michael R. Czinkota

WASHINGTON -- It is said that even the darkest cloud has a silver lining. So what positives could possibly be connected with the sorrowful destruction from Sumatra's tsunami? The catastrophe has shown us several things:

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jan 6, 2005

Lessons from last year's landmark U.S. election

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- The last election that we just endured is still being quantified and dissected. From the seemingly endless forums and reviews that have flowed since Nov. 2, we are learning a bit about how our elections are run and won.

COMMENTARY

Jan 5, 2005

Beijing counts on more high-speed growth in '05

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- Barely three years after joining the World Trade Organization, China has emerged as a major trading power, with total trade last year exceeding $1 trillion, an increase of more than 30 percent over 2003, making China the world's third-largest trading power. This is an astonishing performance...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

Ishii Iron Works remakes self for workers, new energy

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