http://www.atimes.com News and business analysis from Asia en-us http://www.atimes.com/atimes/images/rsslogo.gif http://www.atimes.com 144 32 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-02-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT The young Chinese leadership is displaying a near-schizophrenic split that can be summed up by President Xi Jinping's gung-ho style and no-holds-barred defense of Mao Zedong and the seriousness with which Premier Li Keqiang, China's first "PhD prime minister", is pushing economic reforms. Irreconcilable contradictions persist between nurturing the marketplace and the Chinese Communist Party's power imperative. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Speculation that China plans to depart from a strict nuclear policy that empahises minimum deterrent and a no-first-use pledge flies in the face of official rebuttals and the fact that its nuke arsenal hasn't expanded with economic advances. Instead of assuming Beijing is aggressive, Western nations asking why their own policy is based on preemptive strikes and not more defensive postures. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Myanmar has a newly registered Nazi party, the Rakhine National Development Party, created in the wake of anti-Muslim violence in Rakhine State. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has dined publicly with its leaders, confirming the strength of race-based politics in the country, where fawning by Western interests has helped to create a sense of invincibility regarding such fascist attitudes. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Barack Obama announced a new policy to limit the conditions for drone strikes against terrorist suspects. Groups sharply critical of the US president's failure to break with George W Bush's "war of terror" gave his pledge to emerge from the legal shadows a cautious, if somewhat skeptical, welcome. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Hunting militants through morally and legally questionable bombing missions hardly provides real justice to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The same international laws are broken by the drone program purportedly intended to protect American soil from foreign enemies seeking to eliminate its citizens. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-02-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Pledges new Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made to investigate the Kargil border conflict and Inter Services Intelligence agency involvement in the Mumbai bombings will be welcomed in Delhi. However, as past stints as premier saw him recognize the Taliban as a legitimate Afghan government and take his country diplomatically closer to Saudi Arabia, leaders in Kabul and Tehran will be less enthusiastic about his return to power. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-02-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Disqualification by Iran's unelected Guardians Council of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei for next month's presidential race have sparked an outcry. Rafsanjani seemingly buckled, while Mashaei, the incumbent president's protege, is taking the only route available to reinstate his candidacy - a direct appeal to the Supreme Leader. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT The Arab Spring and the conflict in Syria have forced Turkey to reassess its policy stance of non-interference towards the Middle East "swamp". Ankara has grasped the opportunity created by the conflict to resolve its Kurdish question - taking a path its leaders hope will enable a reawakening of the country's regional ambitions. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/SOU-03-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT India managed growth of a mere 5% last year. That there is expansion at all is thanks to the services sector, one part of the economy able to operate outside government control. As a growth model, that's unsustainable. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/CBIZ-01-240513.html Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Confusion between national and household savings can make even trained economists struggle to understand the imbalances and role of German savings at the heart of the current European crisis. China's "monumental savings" are subject to similar miscomprehension.