The total area of China’s claims on other countries exceeds the size of modern China itself, but Beijing refuses to budge on its claims. Many are based on unsubstantiated (outside China) and unprecedented “historical precedents” dating back centuries. And while… Read More ›

Japan
China Coast Guard ‘harassed’ Philippine counterpart, security expert says
The Chinese coast guard was again on Tuesday accused of “tailing and harassing” Philippine law enforcement ships in the South China Sea, possibly due to Manila’s recently announced security agreements with Washington, a maritime security expert said. China Coast Guard… Read More ›
UK, Japan ink ‘historic’ defence pact
The United Kingdom and Japan have signed a major defense pact, praised as “historic” by the British prime minister but frowned upon by the Chinese government. The Japan-U.K. Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), signed by Rishi Sunak and his counterpart Fumio… Read More ›
China is relentlessly trying to peel away Japan’s resolve on disputed islands
For all the speculation of quick military action by China to achieve its foreign policy goals, Beijing’s track record has been more akin to peeling an onion, slowly and deliberately pulling back layers to reach a goal at the center…. Read More ›
Russia-Japan tensions flare anew over the Kurils
Formally, Russia is not at war with Ukraine, where it claims to be conducting a so-called “special military operation.” But with Japan, given that Moscow and Tokyo never signed a peace treaty officially ending World War II, the two Asian… Read More ›
Japan looks west to guard against a rising China
Japan signed on Thursday a new security treaty with Australia, a fellow middle power that is similarly aligning against an increasingly assertive China. The blandly-branded Reciprocal Access Agreement, which was signed virtually by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 27, 2021
Japan is on the scene in the Pacific. While Japanese athletes will attend the Olympics, Japanese officials will not. China doesn’t want Japan to “politicize” the games. But, consider 2008, the one-hour opening ceremony about nothing but China’s history, with… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 6, 2021
This week, Slovokia cozies up to Taiwan. This is dangerously close to the Czech Republic. Formerly, the two were “Czechoslovakia” until 1993. Pacific Daily Times has some dark information about Taiwan’s poor treatment of a Czech citizen. As calls to… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 30, 2021
Adversity creates alliance. If China’s goal was to unite the world, it is succeeding. Taiwan and Japan are getting cozier than ever, as are Taiwan and the EU. The shift is happening and maps may need to be redrawn. The… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 9, 2021
India has an aircraft carrier. It just finished its maiden voyage in China’s backyard. Those shipping lanes—one third of ocean-faring trade traffic—which China wants to claim by planting islands next to—most of them pass India. If any of them have… Read More ›
USA edges China, takes home most gold medals from Tokyo Olympics
It took until the final few medal events of the Tokyo Olympics, but the United States pushed ahead of China to close the 2020 Games as the big winners. The U.S. took home more gold medals than any other country… Read More ›
Japan plans to deploy missiles in Taiwan in 2022 to counter China
Japan is planning to deploy missile units on an island 300 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan to counter China’s growing naval presence in the area and defend against a potential Chinese attack. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a… Read More ›
2021 Olympic viewership: China vs USA
At least 4 reasons explain the differences between China and the USA on viewership of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. While the viewing of the Games both live and via media reporting in Greater China — mainland, Taiwan Island, Hong… Read More ›
China Threatens to Nuke Japan in ‘Full Scale’ War if They Intervene in Taiwan
In an ominous new video that was circulated by the Communist Party of China, they vow to use nuclear bombs on Japan “continuously until it’s unconditional surrender” in an all out war if they decide to intervene in China’s planned… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, July 19, 2021
China faces a three-pronged attack in the realm of public opinion. The Olympics converge with COVID; the third is three levelings up in Chinese military aggression. COVID is seen in the public eye as having mainly originated from China. Even… Read More ›
Survey: 88% of Japanese, 72% of South Koreans see China as military threat
In a joint opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and the South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo, 88% of Japanese and 72% of South Korean respondents said the increasing military pressure China is putting on its neighbors is a threat to their countries. Japanese… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, May 24, 2021
A democratic Pacific alliance is on the rise. Many nations in the Far East may host US troops, but a bond is forming between them that runs deeper than any US influence. At the center: Taiwan; across the battlefield: China,… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, April 12, 2021
China’s getting more flack from more sides—Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines. Vietnamese are furious with H&M for depicting maps with Vietnam-claimed islands as part of China, even though H&M did that because the Chinese told them to. The noose of perceived… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 22, 2021
Huawei plans to charge royalties for some of its 5G tech, but they may lose respect when they refuse rent payment for anchoring 200 military-manned vessels the Philippines’ backyard pool. International royalties are based on international agreement, which China denies…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 15, 2021
The WHO probe into China over the pneumoniavirus pandemic doesn’t help ties. The team requested raw data; they were given a summary. China blames America. Joe Biden takes on China over Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Uighurs of Xinjiang. Now,… Read More ›
China-US tension: Biden administration pledges to back Japan and Philippines in maritime disputes
The United States has pledged to support its allies involved in maritime disputes over both the South and East China seas – where China is locking horns with its neighbours – as the newly installed US administration is renewing alliances… Read More ›
U.S. reaffirms commitment to Japan to defending islands disputed with China
New U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, during his first phone call with his Japanese counterpart, reaffirmed America’s commitment to Tokyo to defending a group of East China Sea islets claimed by both Japan and China, the Pentagon said. Austin, in… Read More ›
January 25, 1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins the defense of Harbin
The Defense of Harbin occurred during the early Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932. Background After General Ma Zhanshan… Read More ›
January 18, 1915 – Japan issues the “Twenty-One Demands” to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
The Twenty-One Demands were a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the government of the Republic of China on 18 January 1915. The secret demands would… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 28, 2020
Anymore, it’s not only bad news about China, but continued action in both military and trade. The pressure Washington puts on Beijing keeps finding new ways to keep turning up. Sanctions continue to increase. Military attention rises. And, Japan puts… Read More ›
Chinese History: December 12, 1937 – Japanese aircraft bomb and sink U.S. gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze river in China during Second Sino-Japanese War
The USS Panay incident was a Japanese attack on the American gunboat Panay while it was anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanking (now spelled Nanjing), China on December 12, 1937. Like the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor four years… Read More ›
Americans willing to take risks to defend allies against China
Americans are overwhelmingly willing to take military risks in defending allies from China, according to a new poll from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. On a scale of 1 to 10—where 10 means one is willing to take… Read More ›
Xi Jinping’s Napolean moment – beginning of the end for China
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), was a French military leader and emperor. Napoleon rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799) at a very rapid rate. He seized political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état and… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, October 12, 2020
China has gone effectively “NR”, a tech term for software being “non-responsive”. No matter what any nation says or does, China only digs in, tells the same lies no matter how increasingly obvious, and continues aggression as the solution to… Read More ›
2025: End Game China – War a Certainity (Part 1)
DECEPTION A WAY OF LIFE IN CHINA China draws heavily from two famous historical military bluffs and Sun Tzu’s teachings, in its day-to-day life. The legendary stories revolve around Li Guang and his 100 horsemen (144 BC), and Zhuge Liang… Read More ›
Mao Zedong thought Japan did the Communist Party a great favour by invading China
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said there could only be one answer to the question in the Diploma of Secondary Education history exam regarding Sino-Japanese relations between 1900 and 1945: Japan had done China harm, and no… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 17, 2020
All of us enjoy the results of the paths we choose, paths which no one can choose for us. Americans believe this so strongly, it often leads to unhealthy apathy toward others in distress. When America finally decides to help… Read More ›
China increasingly worried about ‘losing face’ as Japan bankrolls exodus of firms
Japan’s decision to offer an initial group of 87 companies subsidies totalling US$653 million to expand production at home and in Southeast Asia has sparked debate whether the world’s third largest economy is trying to gradually decouple from China. The… Read More ›
World War III – China vs the rest of the world
“Hide your strength and bide your time.” China in 2008 “No force can shake the status of our great motherland, No force can stop the advance of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.” China in 2019 The above statements… Read More ›
MPs from eight countries form new global coalition to counter China
What does the chair of the Australian parliament’s Intelligence Committee have in common with a Greens MP, a former Japanese Defence Minister, and a former Liberal Canadian attorney-general? The answer is China. Today, a group of 19 MPs from eight… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 1, 2020
China says every effort will be made for peaceful reunification with Taiwan as long as there remains hope; force is the last resort. But, Taiwan wants peaceful freedom from tyranny; force is the last resort. There is no hope for… Read More ›
China faces fight to hang on to foreign manufacturers as US, Japan, EU make Covid-19 exit plans
Three of the world’s four largest economies, the United States, Japan and the European Union, are drawing up separate plans to lure their companies out of China. Over the space of two weeks, powerful figures from three of the world’s… Read More ›
U.S. economics chief says “pay the moving costs” of American companies leaving China
Call the moving company, and Washington’s picking up the tab. The same day Japan announced that it would spend upwards of $2.2 billion to get its corporations out of China and either back home or spread throughout southeast Asia, White… Read More ›
Japan to pay firms to leave China, relocate production elsewhere as part of coronavirus stimulus
Japan has earmarked US$2.2 billion of its record economic stimulus package to help its manufacturers shift production out of China, as the coronavirus disrupts supply chains between the major trading partners. The extra budget, compiled to try to offset the… Read More ›
U.S.-North Korea tension looms as leaders from China, Japan, South Korea meet
The specter of new confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington hangs over meetings between China, Japan and South Korea this week, with growing risks North Korean actions could end an uneasy detente and upend recent diplomatic efforts. South Korean President Moon… Read More ›
Japan cannot stop China from owning Africa
Japan cannot stop China from owning Africa. When it comes to votes of African nations in international agencies, that is. It’s too late. China already owns the votes of most Africa nations. Japan has a new mission in Africa: to… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 26, 2019
The Hong Kong police have lost public trust. They’ve cried, “Victim!” after their injuries were proven to be from self defense when they were the assailants. They illegally shot tear gas canisters as harmful projectiles in violation of international law… Read More ›
China-Japan relations won’t be altered by Trump’s ridiculous ‘unfair military alliance’ remark
Tokyo (and probably the whole world) was shocked when Bloomberg News reported on June 25 that: “President Donald Trump has recently mused to confidants about withdrawing from a longstanding defense treaty with Japan, according to three people familiar with the… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, June 3, 2019
The “Symphony Asian Mad Scientist Theorem” continues to play out. Trump engaged North Korea in talks that led to a calm without North Korea changing its DNA. Trump eventually reminded North Korea what everyone knew would be necessary to reach… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, May 20, 2019
Of course China wanted to “re-negotiate”. Chinese culture, whether in government or business, seeks to sign a contract first, then negotiate the terms after. In America it’s called “reneging”. In China is called “that strange, silly, sign a contract game… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, May 13, 2019
Trump knew the Chinese all along, all too well. The “trade war” never risked creating a real war; the “trade war” was a ploy the whole time—part of an elaborate scheme to provoke the Chinese into striking too soon. He… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, December 3, 2018
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen apologizing after a mid-term defeat at the provincial level will not demonstrate strength on her part, but she shows respect and stability in maintaining her appointees and policy toward China. Having not stood her ground on… Read More ›
Western analysts got lost in the Abe-Xi maze, and failed to notice a coming synergy in East Asia
For unknown reasons, many Western political analysts made mistakes in understanding the Washington-Pyongyang relation (e.g. forecasting bloody nose strike, but being shockingly embarrassed by the Trump-Kim Singapore summit), and then the Pyongyang-Beijing relation (portraying a tension, but being surprisingly slapped… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, April 23, 2018
The US is arming East Asia and disarming North Korea. China is a spectator in the Western game. Reports and gossip about the latest North Korean promise to disarm ensnared many in the media. The South Korean Kumbaya singing President… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, April 9, 2018
China has been a source of great change. Taiwan has received a license from the United States to build its own submarines. Wang, a legislature who sits on the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee said that friendliness from the… Read More ›