East Asia

Hong Kong protests over death of Tiananmen dissident

Mass protests greeted Hu Jintao in Hong Kong as he swore in a new chief executive for the territory. Demonstrators demanded an investigation into last month’s suspicious death of 1989 Tiananmen Square protester Li Wangyang.

East Asia

“Nuclear dictatorship” in Japan?

Former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan told the current government to abandon nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, comparing the nuclear industry’s hold on society to that of the Imperial military during World War II.

East Asia

Greater Tokyo to annex China-claimed Senkaku Islands?

Tokyo’s notoriously nationalist governor Shintaro Ishihara is pushing a plan for the metropolitan government to purchase and annex the China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the hydrocarbon-rich East China Sea—without consulting local Okinawa officials.

East Asia

Tiananmen Square revisionism, East and West

The official US hand-wringing is all for public consumption. On June 4, 1989, China’s rulers proved to the world that they were willing to slaughter their own citizens in the interests of “stability.” They were rewarded with massive investment.