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Harvey Stockwin
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2002
Will Jiang cling to power?
HONG KONG -- As top politicians in the Communist Party of China consult and confer with each other at Beidaihe during their annual seaside retreat, one key question facing them is whether 76-year-old President and CPC Secretary General Jiang Zemin will seek to extend himself in office.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2002
Wounds of flawed partition remain raw
HONG KONG -- Once again, Indo-Pakistani relations are seen to be teetering on the brink of potentially calamitous conflict. Yet too little attention is being paid to the possible solutions that could diminish the sustained Indo-Pakistani cold war with its proven tendency to occasionally become hot.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2002
No easy answers for China as refugee problem grows
HONG KONG -- There was biting irony behind the episode of the five North Koreans' seeking asylum at the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, China, as well as the lingering diplomatic Sino-Japanese impasse over whether China infringed on Japanese sovereignty by taking the North Koreans into custody.
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2002
Too early to fete a new day for Myanmar
HONG KONG -- On May 7, Vietnam inadvertently hindered 50 million Myanmarese from learning that "at last Aung Sang Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest." The Myanmar government's authoritarian habits prevailed at the very moment when hopes of future democracy were reborn.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2002
Latest Chinese puzzle has experts baffled
HONG KONG -- For China-watchers, the puzzling China contrast is between a nation that sends the capsule Shenzhou 3 into space and one that drags a seemingly useless rusty hull halfway around the globe. China's first aircraft carrier has finally arrived in port, but the mystery remains as to what conceivable...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2002
Political winds still shape Chinese history
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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2002
Halos, signposts show Korean impasse
HONG KONG -- Flower shows, snowdrifts and clouds over Mount Paektu may help explain the continued absence of peace on the Korean Peninsula.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2002
A gesture can go a long way
Will history repeat itself today?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2002
Southeast Asia receives terrorism wake-up call
HONG KONG -- The wake-up call has been loud and clear. As the alarm sounded, it confirmed that terrorism in Southeast Asia is a problem in need of attention. The most urgent wake-up call did not come from the southern Philippines, where around 650 U.S. troops are now being deployed as Washington opens...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2002
Who is bugging the Chinese leadership?
HONG KONG -- Since it is not opening up to the outside world, but remains a very closed society in terms of its internal politics, China raises more questions than it answers. The latest intriguing episode concerns the bugging of a Boeing 767-300ER purchased in 2000 to be the VIP jet for President Jiang...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002
Beijing's political reflexes still at war with modernity
HONG KONG -- In the 23 years since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the outside world, it has become one of the world's great trading nations. Now the further onrush of foreign trade is to be used as a forcible stimulant to hasten China's economic reform and to enhance modernization. So Dec. 11, the day...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2002
Estrada the 'Most Abject,' Koizumi-Putin the 'Boldest'
HONG KONG -- The prize for the "Most Abject Politician of the Year" clearly goes to former Philippine President Joseph Estrada. His hang-dog expression, as numerous court cases went against him in his protracted legal battle against corruption charges, vividly illustrated the fall of the former matinee...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001
Shanghai mayor's fate may signal storm
HONG KONG -- A political mystery arose in Shanghai as the year drew to an end. Few foreigners took much notice. Yet the unexplained incident could indicate that a bumpy year lies ahead for politics in China.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001
Spy-plane incident continues to shake Sino-American ties
HONG KONG -- As he left Beijing after 18 months as United States ambassador to China, Adm. Joseph Prueher, while hoping Sino-American relations were on an upswing, still warned that the continued detention of the U.S. Navy's EP-3E reconnaissance plane was having a "corrosive effect" on relations. "It's...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2001
China faces a dilemma in ties with U.S.
HONG KONG -- In the end, China released those 24 members of the crew of the U.S. EP-3E reconnaissance plane just in the nick of time. The end of the crew's detention -- plus China's decision not to put any of the crew on trial, as some hardliners had advocated -- came just in time to undercut a growing...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2001
East Pakistan's bloody death, 30 years on
HONG KONG -- Tonight marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most traumatic Asian events in recent times: the blood-soaked birth of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi voices will be raised to remind the world of what was an enormous crime against humanity. But they may not tell the full story....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2001
Indonesia's future is visible in Kalimantan
HONG KONG -- As the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan has been effectively cleansed of its Madurese minority, it has been another forceful reminder that communal conflict can be a terrifying reality that requires a quick and firm response if its effects are to be minimized and national unity...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2001
Falun Gong feels the heat
HONG KONG -- Former Indian Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati perfectly illustrated the enormous gulf between the political cultures of India and China when he arrived in Hong Kong recently as part of a United Nations human-rights inspection team.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2001
Few lessons for Wahid in Estrada's fate
There are a growing number of students on the streets of Jakarta who are hoping to do to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid what was done last month to Philippine President Joseph Estrada: depose him through the deployment of people power.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2000
A history lesson for the litigants in Florida
HONG KONG -- It was with a sense of sickening dread that one heard, not the result of the U.S. presidential election, but the news that at least 50 high-powered (and highly priced) lawyers were hastening to the state of Florida on behalf of the Democratic Party, quickly followed by a similar squad representing...

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