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COMMENTARY

Jun 30, 2003

U.N. strives to control real weapons of mass destruction

By Keizo Nabeshima

In July 2001 the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus an action program to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Two months later, the 9/11 terror attacks hit the United States, shifting the focus to international terrorism and the proliferation...

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2003

Six lies of Myanmar's junta

By Harvey Stockwin

HONG KONG -- Myanmar's military junta has reacted to growing international disquiet over its current crackdown on the country's duly elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy by telling lies that only increase fears for her personal survival.

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2003

Humane results don't justify bad policy

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- Never mind finding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, intones U.S. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a bad man and "our war to liberate Iraq was right and just." Liberal pundit Nat Hentoff agrees, calling humanitarianism "the most compelling reason...

COMMENTARY

Jun 29, 2003

China a laggard in preemptive reforms

By Frank Ching

HONG KONG -- When China sacked its health minister and the mayor of Beijing on Easter Sunday for their mishandling of the SARS crisis, many political analysts predicted that severe acute respiratory syndrome would have the same effect on China that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 had on the Soviet...

COMMENTARY

Jun 28, 2003

Appeasers selling India short

By Brahma Chellaney

NEW DELHI -- Belgian scholar Pierre Ryckmans coined the phrase the "100 percenters" to describe Beijing's international fans who support whatever China says 100 percent. Publishing under the pen name Simon Leys, Ryckmans compiled the statements of these toadies in defense of Chinese actions, including...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 28, 2003

Asia's future leaders take center stage

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- "If you've got it," as the saying goes, "flaunt it!" And Asia's "New Leaders" have got "the right stuff" in spades. But what to do with it?

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2003

End North Korea's drug-trade addiction

By Ah Young Kim

HONOLULU -- The recent seizure of the ship Pong Su off Australia and its cargo of more than $144 million of heroin has put North Korea's drug trafficking in the international spotlight. The attention is long overdue. There must be a strong response by the international community and concerted efforts...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 26, 2003

U.S.-EU axis of divergence

By Jonathan Fenby

LONDON -- When the war in Iraq ended, politicians, diplomats and commentators in Europe stressed the need to repair the rift that had grown up between the United States and countries led by France and Germany, which had opposed the invasion. There was a general anticipation that relations would revert...

COMMENTARY / World

Jun 25, 2003

Hu recasting China's foreign policy

By Eric Teo Chu Cheow

SINGAPORE -- China's new president, Hu Jintao, appears to be remaking his country's foreign policy. Taking over in mid-March after the 16th Communist Party Congress, Hu was immediately plunged into one of China's biggest crises in modern times, the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome.

COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE

Jun 23, 2003

U.S. deficit skyrocketing to new heights

By Bob Keefe

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush cheered millions of American fathers last week by enabling them to contemplate how to spend a tax bonus of $400 per child that will be arriving just in time for their late summer vacation this year. They should be happy with that.

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2003

Asia-watcher likes what he sees

By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES -- Like the American stock market, the Asian political scene suffers ups and downs. Today, Asia might seem more like a hibernating bear in a China shop than anything else. SARS-hit Hong Kong is experiencing its highest jobless rate in years, China is toying with the idea of a currency devaluation,...

COMMENTARY

Jun 23, 2003

Diet group takes uneasy steps toward abolishing death penalty

By Kiroku Hanai

Among major industrial countries, only Japan and the United States retain capital punishment. In Japan, however, there is a growing abolition movement. The Diet Members' League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a suprapartisan group headed by Shizuka Kamei of the governing Liberal Democratic Party,...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.

How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan

By Megha Wadhwa

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