East Asia

Stephen Midas reports from the Copenhagen Climate Conference where delegates around the world are working to thrash out an agreement aimed at tackling global warming.

The Diplomat speaks with Nina Hachigian, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-author of ‘The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise,’ about US president Barack Obama’s recent trip to China, Sino-India tensions and whether China is destined for great power status.

Dubbed the ‘Dreamhub’, Seoul’s massive international business district project is meant to be the jewel in the crown of the city’s redevelopment efforts. But as Ben Hancock reports, the plan’s grandeur belies a deep conflict over the future of the city and its residents.

In this country they assume you’re an enemy right off the bat,” the elderly Polish-American tourist said as our ancient Soviet airplane descended into the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on the regular Air Koryo flight from the northern Chinese city of Shenyang.

The Diplomat spoke recently with APEC Executive Director Michael Tay about the key economic challenges facing the region, next month’s leaders’ summit, and claims that international summits are simply talking shops.

By the second quarter of this century, Asia will be the centre of gravity of the world economy and China will be leading the world. But while the US used ‘democracy’ as its defining diplomatic principle in the 20th century, the big question is–what will China use?

Dalian, China - As the world looks hopefully to signs of economic recovery after a year of global financial turmoil and recession, many are turning toward China with renewed confidence, both as a potential investor and a promising new marketplace.

The publication last month of a monograph which dramatically overturns longstanding assumptions about the defense of Taiwan should make sobering reading for US policymakers.

An intelligence specialist considers the implications of the recent attacks by Chinese hackers on the website of the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The Diplomat spoke recently with Stephen Yates, senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, and Christian Whiton, a former deputy special envoy to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, about North Korea, China and US relations with Japan.

We may never know exactly what happened when an ethnically charged fight in a toy factory in southern China on June 26 left two Uighur factory workers dead and dozens more injured.