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 ›

Vietnam
Chinese research ship collects samples, tests submersibles in Vietnam-claimed waters
A Chinese government scientific research ship has completed an expedition in waters disputed by Vietnam and China in the South China Sea, according to Chinese state media and data from a ship-tracking platform The Tan Suo 2 left the Chinese… 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 ›
Mekong countries must confront China over dam impact, experts say ahead of China-led meeting
China’s extensive damming of the upper Mekong River has reduced water flows, threatening downstream countries Cambodia and Vietnam with environmental harm and food shortages, said experts in advance of a summit meeting of the multilateral Mekong-Lancang Cooperation group. The summit,… Read More ›
Vietnam could face blowback from legal row with China
If Hanoi files an official complaint in its South China Sea dispute with Beijing, it could lose more than it win. Pundits are predicting that Vietnam will soon file a complaint under the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea… Read More ›
ASEAN, C-19 and Vietnam’s Chairmanship
COVID-19 (C-19) event is posing serious challenges for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2020. But Vietnam, as current ASEAN chair, is trying to make the best of the situation and demonstrate leadership. As 2020 marks a… 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 ›
Why ‘Made in Vietnam’ won’t replace ‘Made in China’
Now that Vietnam appears to have won its health war against Covid-19 after recording zero deaths and winning international praise for its crisis management, speculation is rising the nation could also be an economic winner of the pandemic. According to… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, January 27, 2020
Trying to be polite or indirect while not taking no for an answer does not give anyone a right to make trouble. When someone gives a decisive, “No,” decent people accept that answer, then move on somehow. But, China doesn’t… Read More ›
Google is reportedly going to make its Pixel phones in an old Nokia factory in Vietnam to escape Trump’s China tariffs
Google is planning a big production shift from China to Vietnam,Nikkei Asian Review reports. Two sources familiar with the matter told Nikkei the company has already started work converting an old Nokia factory in northern Vietnam so that it can… Read More ›
South China Sea showdown: China vs Vietnam
Chinese incursions into Vietnam’s EEZ are by no means a new phenomenon. The most serious recent incident occurred in 2014, when China deployed an oil rig into Vietnam’s EEZ, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbors. The current situation… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 19, 2019
Conflicts with China are helping Taiwan. The trade war is driving manufacturing away from China toward Taiwan, Vietnam, and Burma, among others. China’s travel ban on Taiwan for openly supporting the Hong Kong protests is pushing the Taiwanese to implement… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 4, 2019
Buffoons became naysayers this week, arguing that tit-for-tat military drill concessions would be the path to peace and that progress without finality in Hanoi surmounted to failure. Trump knows exactly what he is doing. Progress without “too much too fast”,… Read More ›
Kim Jong-un’s through-China self-armored train trip to Vietnam is a breakthrough
The California-based ‘The Drive – War Zone’ has this description of Kim Jong-un’s armored train: “…These trains also pack critical communications gear, spaces for a small army of heavily armed guards, as well plenty of room for support staff and… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, February 25, 2019
Nations and peoples of the free world are reaching toward each other. The EU reached out to Taiwan and Taiwan was grateful. Taiwan reached out to CNN and CNN did an interview. Kim Jong Un is likely on a train… Read More ›
China is losing the trade war in nearly every way
China is still the world’s No. 2 economy and is still the monster of emerging markets, but regardless of those bonafides, Xi Jinping’s country is losing the trade war in nearly every way imaginable. The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 4, 2018
North Korea inches further and further toward talks with the US. China fears this. If Kim Jong-Un get in the same room as the man who wrote The Art of the Deal, North Korea could become a stronger ally to… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, March 12, 2018
As talks between Kim and Trump march forward, China is resigned to the new situation at its eastern border and is focusing on other areas, specifically trade. In truth, China’s main trade opponent is not the US, but Vietnam. Vietnam’s… Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, November 13, 2017
At the APEC summit in Vietnam, Putin told Trump that Russia had not interfered in the 2016 election. Putin was sincere. At the same time, Taiwan is beefing-up cybersecurity, ostensibly to counter “daily” and “Russian style” attacks originating in China…. Read More ›
Cadence Column: Asia, August 21, 2017
After President Trump warned that North Korea must never make any more threats, North Korea is making more threats than ever. Trump mentioned Hawaii and Guam in his warning, North Korea mentioned Hawaii and Guam in this week’s threats. Again,… Read More ›
China marks South China Sea claims with coast guard, marine militias
China’s growing use of non-conventional means to assert control over the South China Sea is raising concerns among neighboring countries and regional military planners. Analysts say that in “front line” flash points in the vast waterway, Beijing is deploying coast… Read More ›
Japan to provide patrol ships to Vietnam amid maritime row with China
The Japanese government said on Wednesday it is ready to provide Vietnam with new patrol ships, in its latest step to boost the maritime law-enforcement capabilities of countries locked in territorial rows with China. On Tuesday, Japan agreed to provide… Read More ›
Vietnam is moving rocket launchers into the disputed South China Sea
Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China’s runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials. Diplomats and military officers… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, May 30, 2016
China has reportedly announced that it has been outdone by US technology. This implication came from the statement that it can only respond to the US “freedom of navigation” exercises by sending nuclear subs to the South China Sea. While… Read More ›
China building 3 more large deep sea oil rigs to explore for oil in South China Sea
The following is based on a translation of a report in Chinese media: Global Times says in its report yesterday that it took 6 years and 6 billion yuan (USD940 million) for China to build its first homegrown deep sea… Read More ›
Vietnam says it will not take sides between China and U.S.
The following is based on a translation of a report on a Chinese news site: A report on Chinese news site mil.huanqiu.com cites Taiwan’s Central News Agency as saying that Vietnamese Defence Minister Phùng Quang Thanh said that Vietnam attached… Read More ›
Rising India is vital to allied hopes to contain China
With Australia firmly in the geopolitical mix, no one is publicly talking about China and containment, but all strategies are going in that direction. A recent cover of India Today magazine has Prime Minister Narendra Modi dressed up as Superman,… Read More ›
China wants great power without great responsibility
Forty-three years after Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China, that country has seemingly decided to take a page from the former U.S. president’s Treasury Department. As China lowers the value of the yuan, the country’s economic policy makers… Read More ›
Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 29, 2015
China’s economy is tanking if you look at sales reports, or, no, wait, it’s going up if you ask the Chinese. China is also losing the in the battle for Vietnam’s alliance: Moscow is now buddy-buddy with Hanoi. Taiwan’s internal… Read More ›
Why the bear is back in Vietnam – Russia assisting Vietnam in South China Sea dispute
Russia-Vietnam ties that seemed to be cooling after the end of the Cold War are warming up all over again. More than 20 years after Moscow abandoned its largest foreign base, Russian military aircraft are once again welcome visitors at… Read More ›
China’s South China Sea claims are not supported by its own historical records
Is China starting down a path similar to that followed by Japan and Germany before 1945, when nationalism backed by new economic clout led to overconfidence and adventures which eventually proved disastrous? The question needs asking in the context of… Read More ›
China deployed artillery on disputed island in South China Sea
The United States has spotted a pair of mobile artillery vehicles on an artificial island that China is building in the South China Sea, a resource-rich stretch of ocean crossed by vital shipping lanes, American officials said. China’s construction program… Read More ›
U.S. proposes military challenge to China over South China Sea claims
The U.S. military is considering using aircraft and Navy ships to directly contest Chinese territorial claims to a chain of rapidly expanding artificial islands, U.S. officials said, in a move that would raise the stakes in a regional showdown over… Read More ›
Asean chief says ‘can’t accept’ China’s South China Sea claims
The secretary-general of Southeast Asia’s 10-member trade and security bloc Sunday said the group can’t agree to China’s use of its so-called nine-dash line to claim the contested waters of the South China Sea as Beijing continues its land-reclamation efforts… Read More ›
India will not hesitate to use naval power to protect economic interest in South China Sea
India has warned that it is prepared to use force to secure its economic interest in the South China Sea. India has placed allegations that Beijing had deliberately hampered its rival oil and gas exploration efforts. As China and India… Read More ›
Southeast Asia attracts more foreign direct investment than China for second year
Southeast Asia’s major economies drew more foreign direct investment combined than China for the second straight year in 2014, as growth in their giant neighbour cooled. But by country, inflows into the region were uneven, swayed by political change and… Read More ›
South China Sea: China reclaims land on yet another reef, to show disregard to US, Vietnam and Philippines
The following is a translation from Chinese media: In addition to the artificial islands China has been building on Johnson South Reef, Cuarteron Reef, Hughes Reef, Mckennan Reef, Gaven Reef, Eldad Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef, China has… Read More ›
Microsoft closing two China factories and relocating to Vietnam; another 9,000 jobs lost
Microsoft will close two Chinese factories that it acquired when it bought Nokia’s handset business in April 2014, cutting 9,000 jobs.. The report by MarketWatch said the two factories were in Beijing and Dongguan, and that some equipment and production… Read More ›
China’s wage inflation forcing foreign firms to look at Southeast Asia
The economic turbulence in China has another hidden layer to it – losing jobs to Southeast Asia as multinational companies relocate their manufacturing units to those countries as a way to enhance cost efficiency. “I definitely think Southeast Asia is… Read More ›
Will China continue to provoke its neighbours in 2015?
A nudge by air in 2013. A probe by sea in 2014. Will China take a crack on land in 2015? For the sake of world peace, let’s hope not. However, China’s nudge and probe record, especially over the last… Read More ›
China’s charm offensive: $3 billion attempt to buy good relations with South East Asia
After his successful charm offensive in central and eastern Europe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang directed the same offensive at South East Asia. According to a Reuters report, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece Xinhua said in its report yesterday that Li has… Read More ›
Will South China Sea dispute arbitration bring peace to the region?
To this question the Philippines gives a positive answer. In its report today Reuters quotes the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry as saying, “The Vietnamese position is helpful in terms of promoting the rule of law and in finding peaceful and nonviolent… Read More ›
Vietnam launches legal challenge against China’s South China Sea claims
Vietnam and China moved their sabre-rattling over the South China Sea into the legal arena this week as Hanoi lodged a submission with an arbitral tribunal at The Hague and rejected a Chinese position paper. Beijing swiftly dismissed Vietnam’s challenge…. Read More ›
China’s diplomatic blitzkrieg against the US at APEC summit may not be as successful as China believes
The following is a translation from Chinese media with commentary: The website of the US National Interest magazine published on November 30 the article “America’s Next Big Challenge: Countering China’s Diplomatic Blitzkrieg” by Richard Javad Heydarian, an Assistant Professor in… Read More ›
Vietnam warships visit Philippines amid South China Sea dispute
Vietnam on Tuesday showed off its two most powerful warships in the first-ever port call to the Philippines, but an official said it was not trying to challenge China’s superior naval forces amid tension in the South China Sea. Hanoi… Read More ›
China makes public its dream for Greater Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
In my post “China’s Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” on January 28, 2012, I said: “Decades ago, Japan shed lots of blood to fight for the establishment of its Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere but failed disastrously. However, it seems that… Read More ›
Why the US may go to war in the South China Sea
It is no secret that the South China Sea is an area of conflict and controversy, but understanding the interests and role of the United States in that region is not intuitive. The situation centers on competing territorial claims by… Read More ›
Vietnam is becoming a proxy in efforts to contain China in the South China Sea
Vietnam is becoming a proxy against China in any future possible confrontation in the South China Sea or South Asia as a whole. On Oct. 28 India announced that it would sell naval vessels to Vietnam in exchange for an… Read More ›
Short-term enmity but long-term friendship between China and Vietnam
Quite a few Chinese believe a naive Chinese girl’s prediction that China will fight a war with Vietnam for reunification. It will be one of the six wars she believes that China will fight within the coming five decades. I… Read More ›
China’s Dangerous Game
China‘s intensifying efforts to redraw maritime borders have its neighbours, and the U.S., fearing war. But does the aggression reflect a government growing in power – or one facing a crisis of legitimacy? In the tranquil harbours that dot the… Read More ›