Tag: Burma

  • Asia in Obama's 2014 State of the Union: We're Still Number One

    President Barack Obama’s 2014 State of the Union does not emphasize Asia, except as a competitor. Last year’s post is here. Opening comments Asia got scant attention in this State of the Union. Japan was not mentioned at all, which has been a kind of norm for Obama. China came up twice as a competitor…

  • Among China expats today, echoes of Orwell's time in Burma?

    At the recommendation of a friend in Beijing, I’ve been reading George Orwell’s Burmese Days. Coincidentally, Jane Perlez of The New York Times recently traveled to the real town Orwell was stationed in that inspires the novel’s setting. She calls the book “a scathing portrait of the imperious attitudes of the British, from this former colonial outpost on…

  • Asia in the State of the Union: Bringing jobs home and—psst!—cybersecurity

    UPDATED at bottom with further comments The State of the Union speech this year was not suited for heavy lifting in foreign policy, and it had almost nothing to say about policy in the Asia-Pacific. According to the prepared speech, President Obama mentioned a push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, responded to North Korea’s recent nuclear…

  • Olympic Threats Won't Work and They're Getting Old

    The Olympics are a major international political event, and they’ve been part of activists’ rhetoric on Darfur and now Burma. But making threats about the Olympics is no way to make China cooperate. The phrase “Genocide Olympics” has been a recurring theme in rhetoric from U.S. and European activists who seek to pressure the Chinese…