Greg Torode - The Japan Times

ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS

Jun 16, 2019

How Hong Kong protests and Beijing pressure forced Carrie Lam to cave on extradition bill

With an escalating U.S. trade war, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea vexing her bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam appeared in no mood to compromise on a planned extradition law at recent meetings, according to foreign envoys and business people who met with...

ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS

May 7, 2019

China's furtive fleet of nuclear missile-laden submarines tests the Pentagon

Recent visitors to the bay surrounding a submarine base on the southern coast of China's Hainan Island describe a curious nocturnal phenomenon. Powerful spotlights are sometimes trained directly on the ocean frontages of neighboring hotels at night, making visibility out to sea virtually impossible....

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS

Sep 14, 2018

Taiwan courts security ties with bigger friends such as Japan, India as Beijing snatches allies

As Beijing intensifies its effort to further isolate Taiwan diplomatically, Taipei is actively but discreetly broadening security ties with regional powers beyond its long-standing relationship with the United States.

ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS

May 25, 2018

Subi Reef, built up by Chinese, appears nearly ready to host first troops based in heart of South China Sea

At first glance from above it looks like any clean and neatly planned small town, complete with sports grounds, neat roads and large civic buildings.

WORLD

May 25, 2018

Chinese claims in South China Sea overlap with Vietnam's oil projects

Some oil blocks off Vietnam's sprawling coastline fall within an area of the South China Sea demarcated by China's "nine-dash line," the basis for Beijing's controversial claims to most of the resource-rich waterway.

ASIA PACIFIC

Oct 1, 2017

Japan-based U.S. carrier navigates crowded waters as North Korea tensions mount

As the commanders of the largest U.S. warship in Asia seek to maintain operational readiness amid protracted tensions over North Korea, they find themselves keeping one eye on China, too.

ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS

Apr 4, 2017

Chinese wary over U.S. THAAD missile system because capabilities unknown, experts say

China is steadfastly opposed to the deployment of advanced U.S. anti-missile radars in South Korea because it does not know whether the defenses, intended for North Korean missiles, are capable of tracking and countering Beijing's own nuclear program, experts say.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Dec 4, 2016

Singapore may prove a tough nut for China to crack over regional security

As the impounding of Singaporean troop carriers in Hong Kong exposes rising tensions between China and Singapore, the Lion City is unlikely to budge on core security interests concerning Beijing: its military relationship with Taiwan, worries over the South China Sea and its hosting of the U.S. military....

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Nov 9, 2016

Hong Kong lawyers, politicians fear slippery slope following Beijing intervention

Lawyers and politicians in Hong Kong are bracing for a broader crackdown after China's move to effectively ban two independence-minded lawmakers, fears reinforced by senior Chinese parliamentarian Li Fei, who insisted on Beijing's duty to assert its authority.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Nov 8, 2016

Beijing intervention roils waters for Hong Kong's top judge

Hong Kong Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, a bald, thickset lawyer with a Churchillian air, is in the eye of a storm after Beijing's politically charged intervention in the city's legal system, and those close to him say he is not a man to bend his principles.

ASIA PACIFIC

Feb 7, 2016

China faces diplomatic crisis over missing Hong Kong booksellers

For years Gui Minhai, a China-born publisher of tabloid books on China's leaders, had believed he could live and work overseas on a Swedish passport without fear of persecution by Chinese authorities, which ban such works on the mainland.

ASIA PACIFIC

Dec 20, 2015

Vietnamese military grows to face China threat

Vietnam's military is steeling itself for conflict with China as it accelerates a decade-long modernization drive, Hanoi's biggest arms buildup since the height of the Vietnam War.

ASIA PACIFIC

Nov 1, 2015

With vast number of ships, Beijing takes quantity over quality approach in South China Sea

When a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed near one of Beijing's artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea last week, it was operating in a maritime domain bristling with Chinese ships.

ASIA PACIFIC

Oct 18, 2015

Beijing's lighthouses in South China Sea buttress maritime claims

The next time the United States sends warships by China's man-made islands in the disputed South China, officers aboard will have to decide how, if at all, they will engage with a pair of giant lighthouses that Beijing lit up there this month.

ASIA PACIFIC

Jul 5, 2015

China lobbies U.N. tribunal on Manila's claims

China's claims to the disputed South China Sea will come under international legal scrutiny for the first time this week, but while Beijing has officially refused to take part in the case, which was filed by the Philippines at a U.N. tribunal, it has made its presence felt.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Jun 21, 2015

China extends reach into Hong Kong to thwart democrats

Hong Kong's democrats have won their battle to veto a Beijing-backed electoral reform package, but they now face an increasingly organized campaign by pro-Chinese government movements in the longer war over the democratic future of the former British colony.

ASIA PACIFIC

Apr 10, 2015

China cementing reach in South China Sea by building civilian infrastructure: analysts

China's plans for islands it is creating in the South China Sea show for the first time the scale of civilian architecture it will extend across the disputed waterway, entrenching its reach in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, experts say.

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

Dec 15, 2014

How China spies on Hong Kong's democrats

James To was growing uneasy. When the veteran Hong Kong Democratic Party lawmaker looked in his rearview mirror, two silver Mercedes Benz saloons kept appearing behind his gray Volvo sedan.

ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS

Sep 11, 2014

Vietnam creating submarine deterrent to Chinese expansionist efforts in South China Sea

Vietnam will soon have a credible naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea in the form of Kilo-class submarines from Russia, which experts say could make Beijing think twice before pushing its much smaller neighbor around in disputed waters.

WORLD / Society / FOCUS

Jul 1, 2014

Beijing quietly tightening grip on Hong Kong

Since Britain handed back colonial Hong Kong in 1997, retired primary school teacher and Falun Gong devotee Lau Wai-hing has fully exercised the freedoms China promised this city of 7.2 million.

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