Symphony

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, September 12, 2016

North Korea launched “another” nuke test. The announcement made sure that the North Koreans knew that it didn’t harm the environment. The Philippines released photos proving that China was doing what it had already been found guilty of and yet didn’t care.

Obama and China pointed fingers at each other this week. Reportedly, yet unconfirmed, China had a few more fingers to point than Obama. And, none of this is news, yet it continues to get reported week after week.

Instead, the news has quite a different tone:

A young woman walked a young man like a dog in Fuzhou before he stood up and they entered a shopping center together. China has finished the world’s largest “tallest” bridge, yet we won’t be able to cross it for several months. Research shows that about 20% of Taipei has been built on unstable ground and the Taipei mayor cares about the report of the ground as much as China cares about the verdict at sea. And, the most interesting news of all is that, while democracy ideologies have not found their way into North Korea, Green Peace’s ideologies have.

Symphony

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, May 2, 2016

Last week’s unreported US military exercises in Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung, along with the neighboring indictment of the minority party’s legislative control through vote-buying, no doubt sends an unreported message to Beijing. What we see in the headlines more or less tells the same story. The Asian establishment feels threatened.

Every man’s defense is another man’s offense. If “we” own it, it’s a “missile defense” system. If “they” own it, it’s a “missile attack” system. If you ask the Chinese and Russians, the American people don’t like their government. If you ask the Americans, the Chinese and Russian people don’t like their governments. In “Boilerplateville” everyone is right.

China and Russia don’t want an early-stop anti-missile system close to the loose nuclear cannons in northern Korea. The United States sails anywhere and everywhere that anyone anywhere says is able to be sailed—violating nonunanimous claims of both foe and friend. No disputes are exempted. When it comes to allies in Asia Pacifica, Japan debates a lame duck in Taiwan over a fishing boat.

Symphony