Oceania

Rival trade pacts vie for Pacific hegemony

China is proposing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in  a race with the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.

East Asia

Taiwan: anti-nuke action gets the goods

As thousands of protesters blocked a main traffic artery in Taipei and clashed with police, Taiwan's government agreed to halt work on two nuclear reactors.

East Asia

Wildcat strikes surge in China —again

Some 10,000 workers at plants that produce sportswear for Nike and Adidas have walked off the job in Dongguan after finding the Taiwanese company was shorting them.

Central America

Guatemala’s ex-prez took bribes from Taiwan

Former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo pleaded guilty in the US to taking $2.5 million in bribes from Taiwan in exchange for continued diplomatic recognition.

East Asia

Taiwan gets a Maidan movement?

Hundreds of students remain barricaded in Taiwan's legislature in protest of the ruling party's push for a Cross-Strait Trade Agreement with the People's Republic of China.

East Asia

Taiwan: 100,000 march against nuclear power

Some 100,000 across Taiwan marked the three-year anniversary of the Fukushima disaster by taking to the streets to demand an end to nuclear power in the island nation.

Central America

Panama ups ante in Nicaragua canal race

The current expansion of the Panama Canal will accommodate 90% of the world's 370-vessel liquified natural gas fleet—a new bid to undermine Nicaragua's canal plans.

East Asia

Japan, Taiwan ships clash with water cannon

Japanese and Taiwanese patrol ships blasted each other with water cannon as a fishing fleet from Taiwan mobilized a protest flotilla to the contested East China Sea islands.

East Asia

East China Sea flashpoint for Sino-Japanese war?

Leon Panetta warned that the latest escalation over islands disputed by China and Japan could lead to war—even as he arrived in Tokyo to inaugurate a new anti-missile system.

Southeast Asia

Geopolitical chess game heats up South China Sea

Beijing's move to set up a military garrison on disputed Yongxing Island—claimed by the Philippines as part of the Paracel chain—is escalating tension in the South China Sea.