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COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2000

Falling victim to U.S.-Chinese diplomacy

By Philip Cunningham

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...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 30, 2000

The right man for the Korean problem

By John Barry Kotch

SEOUL -- Now that U.S. President Bill Clinton has decided not to go to Pyongyang before his term expires, Colin Powell, U.S. secretary of state-designate in the new Bush administration, inherits the Korean problem. With it comes a golden opportunity to do something that has eluded statesmen for 50 years:...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2000

Arms sales exacerbating global poverty

By Jayantha Dhanapala and Nitin Desai

At the U.N. Millennium Summit held in September, world leaders pledged both to "free our peoples from the scourge of war, whether within or between states" and to halve global poverty by 2015.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2000

Rare rumblings of dissent ruffle Dalai Lama's agenda

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

NEW DELHI -- Even as the Dalai Lama has softened his attitude toward China -- which annexed Tibet in 1950 and drove him to an Indian exile nine years later -- the spiritual leader of his people, who was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, now finds himself facing dissent within his own community....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 29, 2000

Popular challenger lets down many Thais

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee

BANGKOK -- Thai voters dissatisfied with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai's ruling Democrat Party will have a hard time turning to the alternative Thai Rak Thai Party of telecom tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra since public trust in the businessman has eroded.

COMMENTARY

Dec 28, 2000

The fight for liberty continues

By Doug Bandow

WASHINGTON -- We are entering a new year, the true third millenium. Unfortunately, the prospects for liberty do not burn bright. Human history is largely one of tyranny. The history of the last couple thousand years has been largely one of combatting tyranny.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 28, 2000

Protecting Japan's right to freedom of navigation

By Mark J. Valencia

HONOLULU -- Japan's economic security depends on safe and secure passage of its oil imports and trade through the Malacca/Singapore Straits and the South China Sea. Yet a recent upsurge in piracy, "creeping" jurisdiction and possible conflict between rival claimants in the Spratly Islands threaten these...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2000

Surging arms sales exacerbate Third World poverty

By Cesar Chelala

NEW YORK -- In recent public statements, world leaders such as the pope, U.S. President Bill Clinton and World Bank President James Wolfensohn have called attention to the urgent need to end world poverty. Almost lost among their proposals to remedy the situation was any mention of the need to curb arms...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2000

Signs of hope in Kashmir

By Gwynne Dyer

LONDON -- Eleven years of killing, over 50,000 dead, and the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in the world, with a nuclear war between India and Pakistan as the payoff if things get out of hand: The conflict in Kashmir dwarfs every other global confrontation in its potential for harm. But the prospects...

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 27, 2000

Common interest warms KMT-CCP ties

By Andrew Perrin

TAIPEI -- The reopening of the so-called three links -- trade, transportation and communication -- between Taiwan and China may still be some way off, but in the meantime it appears Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) has sidestepped the ban and forged its own direct link with China.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 26, 2000

Don't retreat from the sunshine policy

By Ronald Meinardus

SEOUL -- Government transitions are good times for political analysts. Before the new team moves into office, these experts share their knowledge, make evaluations and sometimes even predictions. These days the newspapers are full explanations of what the new U.S. leadership might do and should not do....

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 26, 2000

Real reform is just beginning

By Heizo Takenaka

The central government will be reorganized Jan. 6, 2001 with the number of ministries and agencies to be cut almost in half to 13 from the present 22. The shakeup is based on a program worked out with great difficulty by the Adminis trative Reform Council, an ad hoc panel created under the Hashimoto...

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.

What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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