I have to disagree respectfully with Zen Pundit, who, in a post riffing off a post by Tom Barnett, argues, "Historically, China has taken a similar [to Europe] ethnocentric view of citizenship ( it is rare though not impossible, for a foreigner not of Chinese ancestry to become a citizen of China); Beijing's ability to …
Month: June 2007
Lavrov visits the Northern Territories
Interpret this as you will, but in advance of the Abe-Putin meeting on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is touring the Kuril Islands (Northern Territories), the first visit by a Russian foreign minister since the collapse of the Soviet Union.At a press conference in Sakhalin, Lavrov claimed …
Book of the week
After last week's unexpectedly timely choice of book, I think this week is an appropriate time to step back and recommend a novel. (Everyone could probably use a break from more serious matters after the past week.)As such, I would like to recommend Murakami Haruki's most recent novel, After Dark, which was just published in …
Meet the new daijin, same as the old daijin
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Abe summoned forty-eight-year-old Akagi Norihiko to Kantei and requested that Akagi serve as Matsuoka Toshikatsu's successor at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF). Akagi, a Tokyo University graduate, MAFF old boy (OB), and grandson of an agriculture minister in the cabinet of Abe's grandfather Kishi, was first elected …
Continue reading Meet the new daijin, same as the old daijin
Building a new relationship in Shangri-La
Contrary to coverage of the Sino-US relationship that greeted the publication of the latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power, Secretary of Defense William Gates is in Singapore, setting out the terms of Sino-US security cooperation (and building on visits to China by General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral …
More retrograde thinking on China from Gertz
Bill Gertz of the Washington Times finally got around to commenting on Admiral Keating's offer to help the Chinese — which I have been told by someone who would know that it was more a "half-joke" and thought experiment than serious offer — develop aircraft carriers. Gertz noted, "Critics say the comments are a sign …
Continue reading More retrograde thinking on China from Gertz
Coming full circle
Back in November, I wrote, "The policy differences between the LDP and the DPJ are too slight for the DPJ to build a campaign on anything other than personality and competence at governing."At that point, it was too early to tell just how incompetent the Abe Cabinet would be. But in the seven months since, …
Tobias S. Harris 