Eastern Asia

Discussions, meetings and banquets at the 2019 Belt and Road Forum in Beijing have finally come to an end. More than 150 delegates attended this event. What can we discern about this project at this stage? Have any new sceptics, opponents or proponents of China’s global initiative, which celebrated its 5-year anniversary last year, emerged?

Washington and its allies across the Western World have been particularly eager in observing this year’s anniversary of their version of the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
It has become an opportunity to add political pressure atop economic pressure already being exerted on Beijing by Washington in its bid to encircle and contain China’s rise.
This pressure comes mainly through the Western media.

The ongoing trade war between the two leading world powers is just one aspect of the global confrontation between the USA and China. Another aspect, and one which will certainly increase in importance, is the Taiwan problem. After all, it seems highly likely that the issue of Taiwan will soon play a central role in the Sino-American stand-off.

Unable to compete on equal terms with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the United States and the corporations that influence its domestic and foreign policy have decided instead to simply cut Huawei off from its many monopolies including chip manufacturing and mobile phone operating systems.

Thus far, the U.S. President Donald Trump has had the most contact with Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, out of all the leaders of other nations. They communicate regularly either via the telephone, or during bilateral meetings and various international events.

Last year, the trade war between the US and China reached an explosive phase, where even those players not participating directly in the economic confrontation, including organizations such as the EU, ASEAN and APEC, found themselves drawn into the conflict.

On 17 May, Taiwan’s Parliament (the Legislative Yuan) passed a law legalizing same-sex marriages. This happened a week before the deadline, set by the Supreme Court (which functions as a Constitutional Court on the island) in its ruling of 24 May 2017 to be enacted into law, expired.

No sooner had we reported on the weapons test that took place in North Korea on 4 May, than the DPRK fired more short-range missiles (of unknown make) on 9 May 2019. One of them flew 420 kilometers, while the other 270 kilometers. Both of the missiles reached their peak altitude of 50 km and then fell into the Sea of Japan / the East Sea. The next day, North Korea’s media outlets reported that the missile launches were part of staged military drills.