About
Transpacifica is primarily written by me, Graham Webster. I'm an analyst, journalist, and consultant on East Asian politics and technology. Here, I write about East Asian politics mostly in China and Japan, the Internet and society, the environment, and contemporary art. Unavoidably, I sometimes veer off topic—even with a topic as large as the Pacific.
By day, I work at the EastWest Institute in New York City, but all opinions are my own and do not represent EWI or any of my other clients or employers.
Twitter: @gwbstr.
Website: gwbstr.com.-
Recent Posts
- Key U.S.–Japan meeting overshadowed by U.S.–China diplomacy
- ‘National interests’ and dealing with U.S.–China distrust
- A great paragraph: Wen Jiabao as prodding CCP rule
- Some notes on This American Life’s retraction episode #Apple #China
- The rise and fall of a migrant food cart in China, from Tricia Wang
Pages
Archives
Blogs by Academics
- 冷知识 Cool Knowledge – Hu Yong
- China Rhyming
- Elite Chinese Politics and Political Economy – Victor Shih
- 花崗齋雜記 Jottings from the Granite Studio
- Frog in a Well – The China History Group Blog
- Frog in a Well – The Japan History Group Blog
- Japan Focus
- RConversation
- The China Beat
- YouMeiTi 有媒体 – Tricia Wang
China
- 两元文化奇物 (biculturalfreak.net)
- China and the World – Ella Chou
- China Digital Times
- China Financial Markets – Michael Pettis
- China Law Blog
- China Media Project at HKU
- Dance to the Revolution – Ella Chou
- Danwei.org
- EastSouthWestNorth
- James Fallows
- Letters from China – Evan Osnos, The New Yorker
- See China
- Shanghaiist
- Sinocentric
- The China Game
- The China Reader – Lyle Morris
- The China Tracker – Forbes
- The China Vortex
- The Opposite End of China
- Wangjianshuo’s Blog
Environment
Friends (non-Transpacific)
Internet and Society
Japan
Me Elsewhere
License
This work by Transpacifica is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Monthly Archives: May 2007
Off-topic: indexed. youtubed. gay’d.
For a long time the RSS feed of indexed, with its index card distillations of popular sentiment, has been a favorite of mine. Today I happened to notice a link to this video on the indexed website. It’s an exceedingly … Continue reading
links for 2007-05-21
Lawmakers ready trade bills as U.S., China talk – Yahoo! News Value of yuan likely to dominate U.S.-China trade talks – International Herald Tribune By Joe McDonald The Associated Press People’s Daily Online — Chinese, Japanese, ROK offcials converge for … Continue reading
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McCain on N. Korea, Rearming Japan, and Taiwan (Oct. 2006)
In a Hannity & Colmes interview last year devoted mostly to attacking U.S. efforts to control North Korea under President Bill Clinton, Senator John McCain—now a leading Republican presidential candidate—said if the United Nations doesn’t do enough to control North … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Article 9, China, China-Japan, China-U.S., John McCain, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Taiwan, Triangle, United States
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links for 2007-05-20
「ブッシュ政権の韓国に対する無理解が反米感情あおった」 | Chosun Online | 朝鮮日報 米NSC次期補佐官フレイザー氏、ブッシュ政権を批判 Xinhua: Cliff carvings may rewrite history of Chinese characters The images change over time, suggesting that many different cultures had used the site over the centuries. A Shining Model of Wealth Without Liberty … Continue reading
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Roh Lauds EU, Scolds Japan, and Calls for Regionalism
Japan Focus republished an April op-ed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun today. Choice quotes: “[T]he Europeans, befitting of a people who invented democracy based on rational thought, are writing a new history based on the lessons learned from their … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, History Problem, Regionalism, Roh Moo-hyun, South Korea
1 Comment
Who’s the Bigger Nationalist: Abe or Koizumi?
Ampontan criticizes English-language media for their “[m]indlessly parroted assumptions based on conventional wisdom” that lead to their labeling Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo as a “nationalist.” The entry notes Abe’s hands-off approach thus far on the disputed island situations with … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Abe Shinzo, Akiko Takenaka, Article 9, Koizumi Junichiro, Nationalism, Yasukuni Jinja
2 Comments
How High U.S. Interest Rates Pay for the Rising Yuan
I had always casually wondered how this little maneuver works. How exactly does China keep its currency pegged to the U.S. Dollar, or more recently a “basket” of foreign currencies, and how does it let it rise? In the New … Continue reading
Tagged China, China-U.S., Economics, United States
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Nixon in China Part One: Keeping Japan in Line
This is the first of two posts in which I will outline some historical context on U.S.–China–Japan relations surrounding Nixon’s 1972 China visit. This material is all drawn from Margaret MacMillan’s Nixon and Mao, which I recently finished reading. (Page … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Books, China, China-Japan, China-U.S., Henry Kissinger, Margaret MacMillan, Richard Nixon, Triangle, United States, Zhou Enlai
1 Comment
links for 2007-05-19
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan schools to teach patriotism Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition voted for the law, which cites “loving our country” as a goal of Japanese pupils’ compulsory education. New Chinese FM says Darfur will not … Continue reading
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How Victor Cha Changed U.S. North Korea Policy
Victor D. Cha is a Georgetown professor who worked from late 2004 until this month as a U.S. National Security Council Asia specialist. From a May 1 Washington Post story called “NSC Post a Real-World Lesson for Cha“: Cha, 45, … Continue reading