Anchors away! Japan just launched Izumo; the biggest and most powerful battleship they have built since WW2…and is it having repercussions across the Pacific realm! Japan’s very popular Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to be leading Japan into a new era of national pride, and perhaps an increasingly more assertive military posture. And China no like! Could we be witnessing a return of Japan into a more formidable military force…a position the US heartily encourages? Find out more about it here! Pikachu would be proud!
Our Chinese and Korean friends are once again up in arms about some top Japanese officials paying their respects to their war dead at a place called the Yasukuni Shrine. Current Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe did not actually himself visit…but lots of others from his cabinet and political party did! And Abe’s particular sense of nationalism, his current popularity, and the current military escalations in the region all point to a possible “re-birth” of nationalistic pride in Japan…with possible big repercussions for Japan, its constitution, and it’s relationship with the neighborhood. Learn. More. Here.
Keywords: Japan, China, South Korea, Yasukuni, shrine, Taro, Aso, nationalism, right-wing, war dead, war criminals, war atrocities, LDP, Liberal Democratic Party, constitution, Self-Defence Force, Senkaku, North Korea, USA, military, Pacific
It finally happened! The months-ago anointed new leaders of China have officially taken the helm of Asia’s super-power state! Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are the new President and Premiere/Prime Minister, respectively, of China….and will likely maintain that status for the next decade. What are these guys going to do, going to focus on, and what may change in China with the change-out of leaders? The Professor examines some possible policy shifts, but much continuity, with these Chinese chaps, in the physical context of their coming-out to the world party at Boao; an international think-tank forum….yet another sign of the changing times that brings more focus to Asia, and China in particular.
Forgive my bluntness, but this wanna-be demi-god of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, is making monumentally stupid moves at this point that are going to have repercussions far beyond the current Korean crisis. As he ramps up the insanity and provocations, it is not the USA that is changing its strategy: it may be that South Korea and Japan make moves towards nuclear armament themselves! And who stands to lose the most in an escalated Asian arms race? China, who can’t be too none happy about any of this mess! Dig this Professor pontification on this Korean conundrum….
Keywords: North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, USA, war, provocation, escalation, arms race, nuclear, nuclear weapon, nuclear arms, nuclear energy, enrichment, threat, arms race, Asia
Well, the rhetoric and the actual action has heated up to a possible point of no return between North Korea and the United Sates and its allies. Will a war occur? Will the Chinese get involved? Will the North Korean leadership become sane? Only time will tell, but that time may be coming soon, as the US has thrown down a gauntlet of sorts by flying B-2 Stealth Bomber exercise missions across the Korean Peninsula as a show of force, and of intent. Why is all of this suddenly getting so hot right this second? Ah! The Professor has 8 different reasons that have collided at this juncture in history to create a perfect storm of a possible war. Not all are obvious, but they are the the well-informed…and that is you!
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