December 20,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: China (December 2013)

The escalating tensions with Japan have featured strongly in China’s traditional and online media in the past two months, but especially in recent weeks. China’s announcement of a new Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) to be established over the East China Sea sparked a strong response from Japan and the United States, which led to […]

Editorial Staff
adiz , diaoyu , jang song-thaek , joseph biden , non-interference in internal affairs , shinzo abe
December 06,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (December 2013)

In 2013 attitudes toward other countries did not substantially change in contrast to the tectonic changes of 2012, when Japanese awakened to a dangerous region. In the annual survey, Yoron chosa, issued in November, one reads of further improvement in relations with and friendly feelings toward the United States, already at record high levels, and […]

Editorial Staff
2+2 meetings , active pacifism , cultural arrogance , feeling friendly , historical honor , schools toward south korea , spheres of influence , status quo power
November 22,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (November 2013)

The Russian media kept its eye on areas around China’s borders, cautiously raising questions about clashing Russian and Chinese interests. In September the spotlight turned to Central Asia. In November with Lavrov and Shoigu going to Japan for the first 2+2 meetings and then Putin traveling to Vietnam and South Korea, areas on two other […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
anti-americanism , balanced diplomacy , economic regionalism , iron silk road , moscow-beijing axis , multipolarity , natural gas price , southeast asia , vietnam
November 08,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2013)

Japan and the ROK-US-Japan triangle preoccupied the Korean media through the early autumn. Criticism of the Abe administration only intensified, but it came amid growing concern about whether further deterioration in ROK-Japan relations was advisable and, even more, how to respond to increasing military ties between Japan and the United States. There was no sign […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
collective defense , forced labor , missile defense , sex slaves , tpp , trustpolitik , us triangularity , yasukuni shrine
October 18,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2013)

As opponents of “collective defense” at home and abroad warned that Japan would start on the same path that led it to war in the twentieth century, Kitaoka Shinichi gave a strong rebuttal in Yomiuri shimbun on September 22, noting differences in the postwar era and insisting that Japan is a peace state (heiwa kokka) […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Iwaki Shigeyuki*)
ahn jung-geun , chinese “new thinking” , debate over china , park geun-hye , sino-japan comparisons , south korea=china
October 04,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: China (October 2013)

Chinese writings on international relations in the Asia-Pacific region continue to be the most prolific and informative in comparison to Japanese, Korean, and Russian writings. Despite censorship and huge gaps in the analysis, there is a lot of interesting material. In recent weeks coverage of each of the principal bilateral relations in the region has […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Pang Zengjun)
bipolarity , economic regionalims , equal dialogue with us , india , japan’s threat , north korean buffer , park geun-hye , sco , seapower , shinzo abe
September 16,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2013)

Russia’s thirst for multipolarity on terms that would not require reconsideration of its assumptions about countries active in East Asia was on vivid display through the summer. Hopes rose appreciably for North Korea’s help in this pursuit, doubts about China were limited in ways supportive of this overall objective, and commentaries on South Korea, Japan, […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
asean , china alliance , cold war school , collective system of security , evgenyi bazhanov , gleb ivashentsov , multipolarity , putin
September 13,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (September 2013)

In a speech delivered on the sixty-eighth anniversary of Liberation Day, Park Geun-hye said, “Japanese politicians need to show courageous leadership to heal wounds from the past to develop the bilateral relationship to a sincere cooperative partnership.” She also urged Japan to take “responsible and sincere” measures for victims of history and together to establish […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
dependency on china , inter-korean trust process , merkel , mutual abandonment , park geun-hye , shinzo abe , xi jinping , yasukuni shrine
September 01,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (September 2013)

Coverage of Abe Shinzo in the Japanese media has centered on three familiar themes and on one that has gone mostly unnoticed abroad. The July 21 Upper House elections were a referendum on Abenomics. Speculation about Abe’s revisionism only quieted some after it became known that Abe would not visit the Yasukuni Shrine on August […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Iwaki Shigeyuki*)
apology diplomacy , chinese power struggle , pla , virtuous history , xi jinping
July 19,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: China (July 2013)

Country Report: China (with the assistance of Pang Zengjun) China’s newspapers, especially Global Times in its English edition, attracted increased attention in the first half of 2013 for their international relations views. Two topics have drawn the lion’s share of attention: North Korea and Japan. Both had piqued foreign interest previously. Japanese observers have closely […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Pang Zengjun)
sino-indian relations , sino-japanese relations , sino-russian relations , sinocentrism , xi-obama summit , xi-park summit