John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Despite the persistent economic headwinds which are expected to slow economic expansion this year, “growth in the Asia and the Pacific area remains better than in any other region; continuing as an anchor of stability and a new growth pole for the world economy.” That’s the guardedly optimistic prognosis [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — Despite reduced tension with Iran, global oil prices were expected to remain high throughout 2012. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said oil prices would remain high amid rising demand. The Paris-based agency said demand would increase in China and Japan with a decline reported in Europe and the United States. [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com A series of naval exercises involving troops from China, Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and the Philippines are likely to significantly raise tensions in the Asia-Pacific. The largest China-Russian naval war game since 2005 is scheduled to start next week in waters very close to South Korea and [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Beijing has blamed the U.S. as well as Japan and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang into persevering with its program to build weapons of mass destruction. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) administration has also called upon Washington to exercise “caution” in its plans to construct in Asia an [...]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a world beset by war, ethnic conflict and humanitarian disasters, Burma seems one of those rare places where diplomats can say they are making a positive difference. Maybe that’s precisely because this Southeast Asian land, was until recently a pariah state, suffering from the self- inflicted wounds of [...]
Sol W. Sanders Looking around the world, the striking characteristic is waiting out a number of crises. Their outcome seems almost artificially suspended, and their interaction on one another and their ultimate effect on the world is at issue. We start with the Euro. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s supplications in Beijing were perhaps laudable but a [...]
Sol W. Sanders The new year’s worldwide economic downturn has an interlocking effect: every national economy is searching to accommodate itself politically as well as economically to what looks to be an extended period of low growth. After longer or shorter periods of historically unrivaled prosperity, they are feeling for a “bottom” — a level [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M. Downing, FreePressers.com One can scarcely read anything on world affairs these days without seeing discussion of the decline of the U.S. and the rise of China. In recent weeks, however, President Obama spoke plainly, bluntly, and even disparagingly to China. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Obama chided China, [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korea is playing a skillful game of funeral diplomacy and politics that’s dividing South Koreans and leaving everyone to wonder who’s doing what to whom in the corridors of power in Pyongyang. All North Korean strategists have had to do is issue a huge welcome [...]
Sol W. Sanders A new era of increasing instability is opening in East Asia. The death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jong is only adding another, if explosive, element to an already volatile equation: China enters a period of substantially slower economic growth, if not a crash, on the eve next autumn of a takeover [...]
