The EU seems ready to move towards lifting its 15 year old arms embargo against China. The governments of France and Germany favour such a revision. To China, the embargo is a relic of the Cold War that hinders co-operation with the EU. The EU Summit of 24-26 March, however, did not make a...

In January 2008, Taiwan's opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) won a two-thirds majority in the elections for the Legislative Yuan, the parliament in Taiwan. On March 22, the candidate of this party, Ma Ying-jeou, was elected president of Taiwan by a margin of almost 20 per cent. There is...

The controversy over the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing has increased markedly due to the violent demonstrations and events in Tibet: While in the West protests and calls for a boycott have grown louder, a nationalist reaction has been forming in China. A black and white perspective dominates...

In November 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama travelled for the first time to Japan, attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore, met the heads of state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - including the representative of the Burmese military junta...

Chinese government officials have repeatedly declared that China - now the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter - wants to take on more responsibility for climate policy at the international level. Chinese emissions targets were announced in July at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, but were...

China's new leadership has launched a series of foreign policy and economic initiatives whose implications reach far beyond their own region. Washington disapproves of Beijing's plans, regarding the proposed financial institutions in particular as a challenge to their established...