Synopsis: The Plaid Avenger is alerting you to the small rift that is forming between Japan and the US….the two economic titans that have also been extremely tight security/military allies since World War 2. The new center-left Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is quietly been busy courting stronger Asian alliances at the expense of the historically US-centered Japanese foreign policy. This is done mainly to help fix the flailing Japanese economy by expanding Japanese economic ties to Asia…but this change in economic focus also affects the Japanese/US security relationship, which is currently melting down over the issue of the strategically crucial US military bases in Okinawa. The Avenger suggests we are witnessing the beginning of a new era of US/Japanese relations which has repercussions for the entire Pacific Rim.
Summary: US President Barack Obama had a busy month of Asian persuasion in November. He went on his first Asian tour since taking office, meeting with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean leaders, but also stopping off in Singapore to meet with APEC and ASEAN. As soon as he got home, he hosted the Prime Minister of India at the first official White House dinner. All of these moves reflect a serious attitude shift of Obama, the US, and the entire world to the overwhelming importance of Asia in this century….as an historic shift from the Europe/US/Atlantic-centered economy towards a Pacific-centered world is underway. And the US don?t want to get left behind!
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Keywords: Barack Obama, Pacific, Asia, ASEAN, APEC, Yukio Hatoyama, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Lee Myung-Bak, Manmohan Singh, US, China, Japan
Synopsis: The venerated Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is hanging out in and around Washington DC this week….but will NOT be meeting with US President Obama. Why the diss from the world’s most popular politician to the world’s most popular buddhist? Ah….there is always more going on behind the scenes in the international intrigue game of politics! The Avenger explains why the US cannot meet with the Lama right now, so as not to piss off the Chinese….specifically as Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao is concurrently visiting North Korea to re-start the 6-Party talks with Kim Jong-Il. US reliance on China’s money and political influence, as well as what the hell the 6-party is, are elaborated on as well.
Synopsis: The Avenger has his plaid panties in a bunch about a serious global shift that started during the big G-20 in Pittsburgh last week: a move to more representative economic and political power on the world stage. Listen as the plaid one explains the background of the G-20 evolution, and the impacts of the most recent G-20 party….specifically for the BRIC countries….as they redistribute voting power in global institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Gee golly, its G-20 genius!
Synopsis: The Plaid Avenger travels deep into central Asia to report on on the on-going ethnic violence plaguing the Xinjiang Autonomous Province in northwestern China. He explains how and why this Han/Uyghur friction has accelerated in the last few decades, how ti is manifesting itself today in these bizarre needle attacks reported widely in the news, and the greater repercussions they hold for the central Chinese leadership as they ponder what to do about their Wang.
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