Eastern Asia

On 15 January of this year, the “Economic and Trade Agreement Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the People’s Republic of China” was finally signed in Washington DC. Those interested in learning more about the contents of this comprehensive (85-page) document can do so on the website of PRC’s Ministry of Commerce.

In a positive appeal to the Chinese people, last Saturday, President Xi Jinping has called on the nation’s courage to defeat the deadly epidemic which has already claimed more than 80 lives and more than 2,000 infected worldwide, the vast majority in China. These figures are changing fast, as the spread of the epidemic is accelerating. President Xi warned that the situation was serious, but not unsurmountable.

From 11 to 15 January of this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe was on a scheduled tour of a number of Greater Middle Eastern (GME) nations, a region of growing importance in Japan’s foreign policy course. This is evidenced by, for instance, the increasing frequency of visits by high-level government officials from Japan to the GME and vice versa.

A month ago, we published an article about Harry B. Harris, the US Ambassador to South Korea and a retired Navy Admiral, becoming the “the target of hatred” for pro-government and nationalist groups because of his unabashedly direct views.

Officially, the relationship between Japan and China is “somehow improving”. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is even expecting a visit by President Xi Jinping this spring.
But, frankly, the relationship between the two mightiest countries in Asia is up and down, still very complex and hardly transparent.

The Taiwanese general election was held on January 11, 2020 to elect the President and Vice President, as well as all 113 members of the unicameral Legislative Yuan. This is a key event, staged once in 4 years, in the political life of the island.

The beginning of January 2020 was marked by an exchange of blows between the United States and Iran, which could potentially lead to a further drastic exacerbation of the situation in the Middle East.

The deadline, established by the United Nations Security Council in December 2017, for ensuring all DPRK workers employed abroad return home was on December 22, 2019. As a result, all North Korean restaurants in Moscow closed down, and up until December 20, the Air Koryo airline had increased the number of flights between Pyongyang and Vladivostok from two to five per week. By November 19, 23,200 workers from the DPRK had come back home.

There has been a series of events that have shaped the overall political landscape in East Asia, and all of the events which have been more or less significant are worth reflecting on. After all, this is the first place where we see the interests of the world’s two most powerful countries collide — the United States and China. Japan’s return to the “Great Global Game” of politics is increasingly having an influenced on the region.