East Asia

Chatham House fellow and Wall Street Journal blogger Yiyi Lu says some of the conventional wisdom on China just isn’t very wise.

Economic reform requires political reform, says James Dorn. China’s leaders must loosen control if they want harmony.

Want to understand Kim Jong-il’s regime? A good place to start might be its cartoons, says Geoffrey Cain.

Strange, ritualistic and stuck in a time warp—it’s easy to discount the annual People’s Congress. And a mistake, says Minxin Pei.

The Diplomat speaks with Caroline Rose, author of ‘Sino-Japanese Relations: Facing the Past, Looking to the Future?’ about Sino-Japanese ties, the US-Japan alliance and the prospects for an East Asia Community.

An admiral stakes a territorial claim—and it looks like there’s more to come.

Sparking one might be the best chance the US has of maintaining its traditional air combat superiority, says David Axe.

A US handover of wartime control of forces to its South Korean hosts has locals torn between sovereignty and security guarantees.

Signs of a decaying North Korean regime are a reminder of allied failures, says Christian Whiton. Time to weaken it from within.

Russian officials have mused openly about the prospects of a de facto takeover of the country’s Far East by Chinese immigrants (legal and illegal alike) reports Joshua Kucera. But a booming Chinese economy and disaffection with Moscow might actually be pushing Russians the other way.

Described by many as the worst crisis in decades in Japan-US relations, the controversy surrounding the relocation of the US Futenma air base in Okinawa has left Japan’s Prime Minister with the choice of defying its most important ally or breaking a key election pledge. But as David McNeill reports, whatever the outcome, the debate has reinforced Okinawans’ disillusionment with power politics and government promises.

Don’t reflexively fear China’s growing naval prowess–there’s plenty of good it could end up doing, David Axe says.