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 SINOGRAPH
China-US
ties bind and bruise
The temperature of United States-China relations has plunged in the few months
since President Barack Obama visited Beijing, with a string of disagreements
leading to icy exchanges. While China's efforts to bring North Korea closer to
nuclear disarmament talks bring hope that cooperation with Washington can only
get better, Beijing's inability to communicate with the world remains a massive
stumbling block. - Francesco Sisci (Feb 9,
'10) |
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AN INDIA-PAKISTAN TEST
Delhi papers over cracks
The growing realization within India's policymaking elite that instability in
Pakistan is detrimental to India's security and economy has led to optimism in
Delhi over renewed India-Pakistan dialogue. However, the countries' conflicting
approaches to Afghanistan, a continued atmosphere of mistrust and the
precarious state of Pakistan's leadership mean that reconciliation is less
likely than renewed conflict. - Chietigj Bajpaee
(Feb 9, '10)
Islamabad can't give an inch
The United States has nudged Pakistan and India closer, bending over backwards
to reassure each of their strategic importance. But Pakistan stands to lose
popular support if it concedes to Indian demands without gaining concessions,
while its greatest fear remains militants infiltrating its larger cities and
unleashing the type of havoc witnessed recently in Karachi. - Zahid U Kramet
(Feb 9, '10) |
Operation Breakfast redux
The escalating drone war of the United States in the Pakistani tribal
borderlands has ominous parallels with Richard Nixon's secret bombing in
Cambodia 40 years ago to destroy a "Bamboo Pentagon", where North Vietnamese
communists were supposedly orchestrating raids deep into South Vietnam. Could
the US be repeating the same mistakes that brought the Khmer Rouge to power? - Pratap
Chatterjee (Feb 9, '10)
Now it's all about Iran sanctions
The window for diplomacy with Iran is all but shut thanks to Tehran's latest
flip-flop on its nuclear program, making sanctions seemingly inevitable.
Western powers are growing weary of what is seen as Iran's mind games and
intransigence. China, though, will not be rushed into doing anything rash. - Mohammed
A Salih (Feb 9, '10)
Internet hit by US restrictions
When United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently criticized Iran
for its strict Internet censorship and filtering, she failed to acknowledge
that Tehran has the US to thank for the sanctions that have crippled the
Internet, with the latest technology and payment methods barred. - Mania Tehrani
(Feb 9, '10) |
COMMENT
Palin into omnipotence
The genius of former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and the
Republican right is to tie fears of big business and big government into a
package that is presented as creeping socialism. This, along with anti-minority
sentiment, attracts the teabaggers' vociferous support. Palin knows that if she
did articulate her policies in a clear and intellectually compelling manner,
the "plain folks" would turn away. - Ian Williams (Feb
9, '10)
Pakistan's military sets Afghan
terms
Pakistan's military establishment, taken fully on board by the United States in
the efforts to find solutions for Afghanistan, has made clear that its
cooperation comes with strings attached. Any Indian role is to be restricted to
civilian development projects, and Pakistan will choose for itself who its
enemies are. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 8,
'10)
India-Pakistan thaw key to Afghan
peace
The prospect of the first high-level bilateral talks between India and Pakistan
since the 2008 Mumbai attack was raised by global powers when they endorsed a
United States-backed plan in London that seeks reconciliation with the Taliban
in Afghanistan. Washington sees the key to Kabul as lying in Islamabad, and the
key to Islamabad as lying in New Delhi. - Siddharth Srivastava
(Feb 8, '10)
Taliban go-betweens draw up road map
Plans drawn up by Taliban mediators for a political settlement in Afghanistan
encourage the insurgency's leaders and the government to reach agreement on key
issues, such as the withdrawal of all foreign troops and al-Qaeda. The reaction
of the United States to the plan and the vexed issue of a new constitution are
the biggest roadblocks, the mediators say. - Gareth Porter
(Feb 8, '10)
Dangerous steps in Iran's nuclear
dance
Just days after Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Tehran's nuclear fuel
could be processed abroad, he ordered stockpiles of uranium to be enriched to a
high degree domestically. Tehran's dualistic diplomacy is designed to increase
Iran's bargaining ability in regards to a fuel deal, while proving a point to
hawks in the United States. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Feb 8, '10)
Israeli case for war with Syria -
and Lebanon
Threats may be escalating between Syria and Israel, but the chances of war
breaking out are very low: it would be too dangerous for Israel and too costly
for the Middle East. Nobody, though, can rule out another Israeli war in
Lebanon, where there is "unfinished" business to do. - Sami Moubayed
(Feb 8, '10)
Beijing beefs up cyber-warfare capacity
Research and development in Internet-based combat, including cyber-espionage,
is high on Beijing’s next five-year plan. Given that friction between the
United States and China will likely continue, if not worsen, over issues
including trade, Taiwan and Tibet, cutthroat competition along the information
superhighway could add a new dimension of instability. - Willy Lam
(Feb 8, '10)
Desperation fuels North Korea's leniency
 North
Korea's release of American missionary Robert Park comes as the debilitating
effects of a botched currency reform raises fears of famine and as a power
struggle erupts among Pyongyang's elite. With the North reportedly reeling from
rice riots and inner-party purges, Seoul and Washington see the perfect chance
to turn the screws on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program. - Donald Kirk
(Feb 5, '10)
Okinawa call to shape new US-Japan era
Washington is pressuring Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stick to a
2006 agreement on the relocation of US Marines stationed on Okinawa, saying
that any other call risks bilateral ties and Japan's national security. Even if
the dispute ends in compromise, Hatoyama's defiant stance may signal the end of
the asymmetric US-Japan alliance. - Axel Berkofsky
(Feb 5, '10)
Nepal trying to march in step
Nepal, striving for lasting peace after a decade of insurgency, has two
standing armies: a state-funded military and 20,000 Maoist combatants living in
United Nations-monitored camps. Divisions over how they should be integrated
into one force have the power to disrupt preparations for a new constitution
and even draw the involvement of neighbors. - Dhruba Adhikary
(Feb 5, '10)
 BOOK
REVIEW
Look who's come to dinner
Superfusion by Zachary Karabell
This insightful book examines the alternatives to fearing China's inevitable
rise as a super-economy and global political force and asks whether American
hostility to making room at the table for an upsetter of the old economic order
is more a reflection of its own lost confidence. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Feb 5, '10)
 CHAN
AKYA
Hair of Damocles' sword
United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's future in office might be
short, with a warning by Moody's Investors Service that the US is at risk of
losing its triple A credit rating giving more ammunition to critics of his
handling of the financial crisis. Whenever his successor takes over,
humiliating deals with China are likely to be part of a thankless work load.
(Feb 5, '10)
THE ROVING EYE
Staring at the abyss
On Indonesia's tropical island of Bali, everything is about sekala and niskala,
ritual and the occult. In the United States, the Pentagon has its occult as it
continues its descent into the ghostly abyss of its "long war". When President
Obama visits Indonesia next month, he'd do well to do some soul-searching on
Bali if he is to avoid being permanently engulfed by hungry ghosts. - Pepe
Escobar (Feb 4, '10)
Dalai Lama firm on Obama meeting
A United States rebuttal of warnings from China against the Dalai Lama meeting
Barack Obama adds to the growing list of tensions between Washington and
Beijing. The issue has spilled over into talks between Beijing and envoys of
the Dalai Lama, who stressed that a meeting between the Tibetan spiritual
leader and the US president was a tradition unbroken since 1991, one of the
envoys tells Asia Times Online. - Saransh Sehgal
(Feb 4, '10)
Shanghai wishing on a fading
Disney star
China's financial center, Shanghai, may be losing its warm, fuzzy feelings over
getting the third Disneyland theme park in Asia, scheduled to open in 2014. As
the city’s politicians look south to the magic kingdom in Hong Kong, where the
reality of losses mock the expectations of a bonanza for the economy, they see
a warning of what their dreams may bring about. - Olivia Chung
(Feb 4, '10)
Anwar trial another black eye
for Malaysia
To many, Anwar Ibrahim is not the only defendant in the dock in a sodomy trial
that is the talk of Malaysia. Amid explicit language and allegations, everyone
from the prime minister and the political establishment to the police and
judiciary itself could be dragged through the mud if, as in Anwar's first
trial, the courtroom drama turns into a high-stakes soap opera stretching out
for months. - Anil Netto (Feb 4, '10)
US's strike threat catches China off
guard
The United States' plans for a "Prompt Global Strike" system that could launch
a conventional weapons attack on anywhere in the world within an hour are
unsettling China. The US combat strategy has traditionally relied on nuclear
might, and this change is seen by Beijing as a maneuver in America's quest for
domination of the world and of space. - Peter J Brown
(Feb 3, '10)
Pakistani Taliban has its work cut
out
If Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, did indeed
die in a United States drone attack last week, there is a ready replacement for
him in a young battle-hardened commander with a set agenda: to continue the
relationship that Mehsud's group forged with al-Qaeda as a component of its
regional plans. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Feb 3,
'10)
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David P
Goldman
(Feb 5, '10)
The drop in the unemployment rate to 9.7% is an artifact of seasonal
adjustment.
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 ASIA
HAND
Vietnam
as Asia's first domino
Businesses and citizens in Vietnam are showing an increased determination to
hold gold or US dollars rather than the local currency, pointing to distrust of
the government's ability to handle the economy. History shows that where locals
set the lead, foreign sentiment often follows. - Shawn W Crispin
Hollywood finds a piggy
bank in Bollywood
Indian investors seeking to combine a love for movies with profit are turning
their attention from the domestic Bollywood market, and its large number of
flops, to Hollywood, where their funds will help fill a void left by the
industry's usual backers, now reeling from the recession. - Indrajit Basu
Blind spots to the right
Yes, the US national debt is rising, at around US$2 million a minute. But
ignored by the polemicists on the right, other data, equally accessible,
demonstrates that government spending did not bring about the financial crisis
and even now is not bleeding the markets dry. - Julian Delasantellis
THE BEAR'S LAIR
The unequal credit crunch
The damage being wrought on small businesses by United States government
policies is delaying the very recovery the government seeks. The way out of
this impasse is to raise short-term interest rates. Growth will follow. - Martin
Hutchinson
FROM THE BLOG
Poor weather gauge
The drop in the United States unemployment rate is an artifact of seasonal
adjustment - a step that in present circumstances is rather like seasonally
adjusting rainfall patterns during Noah's flood. - David Goldman
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The beginning of the end?
The recent tumult in some European debt markets has reignited global crisis
fears, and other straws in the market winds do little to allay these concerns.
Do the US dollar's rally and commodities' downturn indicate deflation? Have the
Chinese become serious about reining in financial excess? In short, is the sum
of the various recent pullbacks the pause that refreshes - or is it the
beginning of the end for global reflation? (Feb 8,
'10)
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
MARKET RAP
Friday blues come up trumps
End-of-week trading brought sell-offs across the region, with the largest
weekly declines in more than two months. Yet few indexes are technically highly
oversold, and further downward moves can be expected.
(Feb 5, '10)
R M Cutler runs his eye over the ups and downs in the week's markets.
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"Re Dangerous steps in Iran's nuclear
dance: "Tehran has been in possession of weapons-capable resources for
many years without any report of diversion to weapons purposes, so why is there
concern now? The answer may lie less with Iran's nuclear intentions than with a
US desire for power projection in the Middle East and Persian Gulf." - OVALTINE
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ATol Specials
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By Syed Saleem Shahzad
(Jan '09) |
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VIDEO
Taliban's new breed of leader
(May '08) |
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The
Gates
Inheritance
By
Roger Morris
(June '07) |
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Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on
the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)
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How
Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)
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Mark
Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar '06)
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China:
The
Impossible
Revolution
By
Francesco Sisci
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The Coming
Trade War
By Henry C K Liu
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A series
by Henry C K Liu
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Sinoroving
Pepe Escobar in China
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Money, Power
and
Modern Art
A series by Henry C K Liu
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Andre Gunder Frank on Uncle Sam and his
shrinking dollar
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By Pepe Escobar with
photographs by Kevin Nortz
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Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi
resistance
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Nir Rosen rides with the US 3rd
Armored Cavalry in western Iraq
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All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
Copyright 1999 - 2010 Asia Times Online
(Holdings), Ltd.
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Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong
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