Eastern Asia
Taiwan’s 2020 General Election
Korean Peninsula and the Crisis in the Middle East
North Korean Workers Return Home. Will Pyongyang Face Insurmountable Problems?
The deadline, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2017, for ensuring all DPRK workers employed abroad return home was on December 22, 2019. As a result, all North Korean restaurants in Moscow closed down, and up until December 20, the Air Koryo airline had increased the number of flights…
Scientists Call For Ban on Human Gene Editing
Japan has banned gene-edited human embryos and international scientists are increasing the call to ban the highly uncertain and risky practice of gene-editing of human DNA. The growing opposition comes as details of a Chinese biologist’s attempt to gene-edit embryos to resist HIV led to massive criticism of the flawed experiment…
On the Resignation of South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon
On December 17, 2019, President of South Korea Moon Jae-in nominated former Speaker of the National Assembly, Chung Sye-kyun, for the post of Prime Minister. “I want to explain directly to the people about the nomination for the next prime minister,” Moon said. “The government has so far exerted special efforts to get rid…
On some of the Significant Events in East Asia towards the End of 2019
There has been a series of events that have shaped the overall political landscape in East Asia, and all of the events which have been more or less significant are worth reflecting on. After all, this is the first place where we see the interests of the world’s two most powerful countries collide — the United States and China. Japan’s return to…
Trump and Kim Jong-un, a Time for Change?
Up until just before the Soviet Union collapsed, very few people in the West thought it ever would. The system was so tightly controlled and repressive that there was no apparent that the people could overthrow it and if it remained change would come at a snail’s pace. Such was the power of propaganda…
Dumping Radioactive Water into the Pacific Ocean — a Hypothetical Scenario for Tokyo?
It was not so long ago that we wrote about how radiophobia is being stoked up as part of the trade war between Japan and South Korea. Having brought this topic to the public’s attention, I would like to go into more detail and highlight people’s fears that “Japanese authorities are about to flood…
The Closer to the New Year, the Greater the Commotion
As 2019 draws to a close, tensions start to rise on the Korean Peninsula, and it is expected that the period of de-escalation in the region won’t continue into 2020. During the whole month of November, North Korean representatives were urging the United States to change its approach, warning that “the window narrows.” The United States…
China’s Huawei Continues to Move Around US Sanctions
By establishing facilities in Europe to produce components, Chinese telecom giant Huawei is continuing the process of circumventing US sanctions amid a wider US-led trade war aimed at artificially quelling the growing trend of foreign companies outcompeting long-entrenched US monopolies…
Japan is Becoming More Active in Greater Middle East
We have pointed out on more than on occasion in the New Eastern Outlook that one of the most distinctive features of the current stage of the Big Game of Politics has been the gradual return of both losers of World War II to it, i.e. Japan and Germany. And it is important to highlight that they are re-entering…
Washington’s Refined Art of Torturing China May Ignite a War
When visiting China, when working there regularly, things all of a sudden appear to be extremely familiar. I feel here like I did in Russia, during the end of the reign of Boris Yeltsin. Many people then, used to welcome everything European and North American with open arms. All that the Soviet Communists used to say was suddenly considered…
