After meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Mr. Obama was asked by a Japanese reporter in an evening press conference whether he would go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where no US president has ever been. "What is your understanding of the historical meaning of the A-bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?" the Japanese asked. "Do you think that it was the right decision?"

"I certainly would be honored," the president replied. "It would be meaningful for...]]> Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:00:00 -0700 As President Obama ponders his options in what has become widely known as "Obama's War" in Afghanistan, the resignation of a middle level civilian official in Kabul has complicated the president's choices while a poll of Afghan's lends a glimmer of optimism.

Matthew Hoh, a 36-year old former Marine who headed a small provincial reconstruction team, has resigned because "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan."

In his letter of resignation to the Director General of the Foreign Service, Nancy Powell, Hoh wrote that "I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of...]]> Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The retiring commander of US forces in Asia and the Pacific, Admiral Timothy Keating, disputes the contention that American power in this region is declining.

Keating, scheduled to relinquish command to Admiral Robert Willard on Monday, said: "The notion that the US military is in decline in the Pacific, I think, is not well founded." The admiral said Pacific Command's readiness had not suffered even though 30,000 of the 300,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen assigned to the command are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Indian Ocean.

In an interview in his office on a hill overlooking Pearl Harbor, Keating said: "I think it is an inaccurate characterization" to...]]> Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:00:00 -0700 After churning for months, the debate over what the US and its allies should do in Afghanistan seems to have solidified into three arguments:

• Get out: That central Asian country was a graveyard for the British in the 19th Century, for the Russians in the 20th Century, and is not worth the cost to the US in blood and treasure in the 21st Century. Threats by al Qaeda terrorists can be met closer to home.
• Go all-in: A retreat from Afghanistan would damage American standing as the world's most powerful nation and therefore the US should pour in troops, arms, and money to defeat the terrorists and insurgents and establish a viable government in Kabul.
• Either...]]> Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:00:00 -0700 TOKYO-The outcome of Japan's election a week ago has surely been good for Japanese democracy but its effect on Japan's governance and the nation's foreign and security policy is wide open to question.

  Democracy in Japan had roots planted during the Meiji period (1868-1912) and flourished in the short- lived Taisho period (1912-1926.) It was stunted by the militarists who led Japan to the defeat of World War II but revived during the US occupation led by General Douglas MacArthur. After that ended in 1952, Japan was ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with only brief interludes.

  This election ended, at least for now, that one-party government. The Democratic Party...]]> Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Fresh information seeping out of communist North Korea indicates that political repression and living conditions have become even more harsh than reported earlier. That has intensified speculation that the regime of Kim Jong Il, the dictatorial ruler who has himself been ill, is on the road to collapse.

  After reciting a litany of Pyongyang's repressive tactics, an American authority on that country said: "The regime has literally terrorized the North Korean public with this intimidation." A pro-North Korean research organization in South Korea reported that food shortages were so bad in one North Korean province that living conditions there were no better than those of the...]]> Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Korea lost a courageous patriot when former President Kim Dae Jung died last week and Asia lost a statesman who nurtured democracy in a region steeped in authoritarian rule.

  In a half century of public life, Kim was captured by the invading North Korean army during the Korean War and almost executed, was the target of an attempted South Korean assassination, and was kidnapped and nearly dumped into the ocean. He was imprisoned, sentenced to death, exiled, and defeated in several elections. Yet he doggedly sought to pioneer democracy in South Korea and to achieve reconciliation with North Korea.

  Kim argued vigorously that democracy was not a Western political ideology alien...]]> Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:00:00 -0700 A gathering of Asian and American diplomats, economists, and scholars in Honolulu came to the surprising conclusion that no Asian nation is willing or able to assume leadership in Asia despite the economic and political progress of recent decades.

  The Asians and American "Asia hands" agreed that China is not ready, Japan is not willing, India is just emerging onto the world stage, and the US is preoccupied with Afghanistan, the Middle East, and the economy. Moreover, Asian international organizations, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have so far shown themselves to be mostly talk shops.

  Most of those in the conference asserted that peace and...]]> Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:00:00 -0700 In East Asia where Confucian thought is still influential from Seoul to Singapore, former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Il was immediately seen as a triumph for the North Korean leader who had maneuvered the American into being a supplicant seeking a favor.

  Clinton was asked by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the former president's wife, to undertake what the White House said was a private humanitarian mission to bring home two inexperienced Asian-American journalists who blundered into North Korea from northeastern China in March. They were arrested, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

  The...]]> Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:00:00 -0700 In East Asia where Confucian thought is still influential from Seoul to Singapore, former President Bill Clinton's visit to Pyongyang to meet North Korea's Kim Jong Il was immediately seen as a triumph for the North Korean leader who had maneuvered the American into being a supplicant seeking a favor.

  Clinton was asked by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the former president's wife, to undertake what the White House said was a private humanitarian mission to bring home two inexperienced Asian-American journalists who blundered into North Korea from northeastern China in March. They were arrested, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

  The...]]> Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The United States and Japan are headed into a time of tribulation due to a paralysis in Japanese politics and President Barack Obama's decision to send an inexperienced and uninformed ambassador to Tokyo.

  Japan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on August 30 in which the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan for most of the postwar period, is widely expected to be thrown out. The LDP has lacked leadership and consistent policy for the last three years during which it has burdened Japan with three prime ministers, four foreign ministers, and six defense ministers, none of them effective.

  The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), riven with factional...]]> Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The civil strife in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China has been a stark reminder that China, despite the economic, military, and diplomatic advances of the last three decades, is still a fragile empire that could break apart as it has periodically in the past.

  Fighting between Uighurs and Chinese armed with clubs, knives, and steel pipes left nearly 200 dead, 1000 injured, and the Communist Party alarmed. President Hu Jintao abruptly left a G8 economic summit in Italy to hurry home, the People's Armed Police flooded the streets of the provincial capital in Urumqi, and the government's news agency, Xinhua, and the party's newspaper, People's Daily, appealed for national...]]> Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Publicly, President Obama and senior officials in his administration berated North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week for firing 11 ballistic missiles eastward into the Sea of Japan, four short range missiles on July 2 and seven medium range missiles on July 4. It was the biggest North Korean missile barrage seen so far.

  Secretly, US officials informed on missile defenses were pleased, for two reasons. First, the elaborate US missile defense in place in Japan, Alaska, California, Hawaii, aboard Navy ships, and in satellites was severely tested and worked well. In particular, the fusion of data from sensors based on land, at sea, and in space produced swift and clear images of...]]> Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:00:00 -0700 In the summer of 1983, during the depths of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan surprised the Pentagon by ordering a show of ground force in Honduras that was intended to deter leftists in Nicaragua and Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had to scurry to execute the president's order, cutting exercises, postponing maintenance, and delaying war games. Sighed a senior staff officer: "We're stretched thin."

  Today, US forces are smaller and stretched even further around the world. The US base at Bagram, Afghanistan, for instance, is halfway around the world from the center of the forty-eight contiguous states near Lebanon, Kansas. On any given day, about one-third of the armed forces...]]> Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:00:00 -0700 In January 1842, a British column of 4500 soldiers and 16,000 civilians, including women and children of the soldiers' families, sought to leave Afghanistan for British India through snowy mountain passes where they were repeatedly ambushed by Afghan guerrillas. In the end, only one survivor, Dr. William Brydon, escaped. The British tried again to conquer Afghanistan in 1878-80 but finally gave up in 1919.

  In February, 1989, the Soviet Union retreated from Afghanistan to the north after having deployed 620,000 soldiers there over ten years, on average about 100,000 at a time. Of that total, 14,450 were killed in action or died of other causes while 469,685 were wounded or fell...]]> Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:00:00 -0700 In a little noted change in US nuclear policy, President Barack Obama this week threatened to employ nuclear weapons against North Korea in retaliation for a nuclear attack on South Korea.

  Rarely, if ever, has the US disclosed when or under what circumstances or in which country it would use nuclear weapons. Instead, US nuclear doctrine has been wrapped in generalities and ambiguity intended to deter a potential adversary from a nuclear attack by keeping him guessing. Day-to-day, that doctrine calls for never confirming or denying the presence of US nuclear weapons anywhere.

  This week, however, the president and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea issued a joint...]]> Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:00:00 -0700 It is a tale "full of sound and fury," Shakespeare would say, "signifying nothing."

  Confronted by North Korea bent on fielding ballistic missiles capped with nuclear warheads, the administration of President Barack Obama, like the administrations of President George Bush and Bill Clinton before him, have thundered at Pyongyang's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il.

  Mr. Obama accused the North Korean of "blatant defiance" and "directly and recklessly challenging the international community." Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asserted that the North Korean has embarked on "an ultimately self-destructive quest for nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles." He said: "We...]]> Sat, 30 May 2009 22:00:00 -0700 HONOLULU - The government of President Ma Ying-jeou in Taiwan has launched a revolution in military affairs that is intended to:

  • Rally the people of Taiwan to a firm defense of their island nation;
  • give Taiwan's armed forces their marching orders for fundamental reforms;
  • deter mainland China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, from invading the island;
  • persuade the US, Taiwan's only major ally, that Taiwan is prepared to do its part in defending itself.

  Until now, some American, Chinese, and Taiwanese analysts have questioned the political will of the people of Taiwan to defend themselves.  Taiwan's armed forces have been seen...]]> Sat, 23 May 2009 22:00:00 -0700 When the new American ambassador to Japan, John Roos, steps off the airplane in Tokyo, the first thing he might want to do is to reassure the Japanese people in public and the Japanese government in private that the US intends to fulfill its commitments to Japan's security, particularly with its nuclear umbrella.

  That obligation, rooted in a security treaty and US policy for decades, calls for the US to retaliate against an aggressor mounting a nuclear attack on Japan. That pledge has increasingly come into question as Japanese political leaders, defense analysts, and news commentators have wondered whether the US, and notably President Barack Obama, can be trusted with the...]]> Sat, 16 May 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The Armed Forces of the Philippines, assisted by US Special Operations Forces and law enforcement officers, have begun to overcome Islamic insurgents in the "Terrorist Transit Triangle" alongside the southern Philippines. At the same time, however, the government in Manila has evidently failed to address the 450 year old issue of making peace with Muslim Filipinos known as Moros.

  A senior American officer, after discussing the efforts of about 500 American troops backing Filipino forces in building schools, medical clinics, and other civic projects, was asked what the central government in Manila had done to bring the Moros into the mainstream of Philippine life. His reply was...]]> Sat, 09 May 2009 22:00:00 -0700 After decades of antagonism toward Taiwan, China seems to have relented a bit to show goodwill toward the self-governing people on the island off China's coast. Beijing has agreed to have Taiwan's observers attend a World Health Assembly, permitted a state-owned enterprise to invest in Taiwan, and for the first time sent a researcher to a US military institute in Hawaii alongside colleagues from Taiwan.

  At the same time, Beijing appears to have turned up its belligerence toward the US by mounting five harassing assaults on US Navy ships in international waters off China's coast in the last two months. Moreover, Beijing has declined to resume military exchanges with the US despite...]]> Sat, 02 May 2009 22:00:00 -0700 While piracy rages unabated in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia, attacks on the other side of the Indian Ocean in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea have steadily dwindled largely because Southeast Asian nations have banded together to fight that scourge of the sea.

  During the first quarter of 2009, attacks in Southeast Asian waters were down to 9, compared with 41 during the same period of 2004, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The IMB, with headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, said pirates attacked 63 ships off Somalia or in the Gulf of Aden in this period. The best known, of course, was the Maersk Alabama captained by Richard...]]> Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The North Koreans were up to their colorful antics again this week that, if the issue wasn't so serious, might have been downright amusing.

  Right after they were censured by the UN Security Council for firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean two weeks ago, North Korean leaders charged through the official news agency that the council was being "brigandish," guilty of "unjust action," and at fault for "wantonly infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK."

  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's formal name, said it would never again take part in the Six-Party Talks intended to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons and would "bolster...]]> Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Kim Jong Il went to the launch site on the east coast to watch the liftoff, then had himself reelected by acclamation. At midweek, according to the official Korean Central News Agency, 100,000 people jammed a plaza in Pyongyang to celebrate. KCNA crowed: "The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) succeeded in launching the satellite despite the enemies' unprecedented political and military pressure."

  Before the missile launch, President Barack Obama and leaders of other powerful nations warned North Korea not to do it. Afterward, the president asserted that North Korea "must be punished," and was echoed in Tokyo, Seoul, Western Europe, and the United Nations. By weekend,...]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Throughout the report, China is more sharply criticized for "creating uncertainty and increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation." Corruption "remains pervasive, structural, and persistent." In the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which comprises all of China's military forces, corruption includes "bribery for advancement and promotion, unauthorized contracts and projects, and weapons procurement."

  The annual report, which was mandated by Congress, has grown to 78 pages from 56 pages in 2002 and reflects the Pentagon's increased attention to China, the improved ability of US analysts to discern trends in China, and a greater anxiety that China potentially...]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0700 Sharp and other Americans credited President Lee Myung Bak, who came to office in Seoul a year ago, for making a genuine effort to put new life into the alliance. And they and Korean officials have been intent on seeing what sort of new policies would come from President Barack Obama in Washington.

  Much of the fault for the strain in the alliance has been laid at the feet of two former presidents, Roh Moo Hyun in Seoul and George W. Bush in Washington. Roh came to office in 2003 with an explicitly anti-American posture. Bush made little attempt to hide his contempt for Roh.

  Said a report from academic and other civilian specialists on Korea gathered at Stanford...]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0700 That warship could outrun, out-maneuver, and outgun the Chinese ships on the scene but arrived after the incident to warn the Chinese not to return. The surveillance ship Impeccable resumed her mission of mapping the floor of the treacherous sea filled with islands, atolls, rocks, banks, and reefs, and gathering intelligence on Chinese submarines based on the island of Hainan, 75 miles away.

  This confrontation, however, was far more than a skirmish at sea. It has turned into an early test for President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao of China at the G-20 economic summit meeting in London in April. Sino-US military relations are certain to be on the...]]> Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0700 The Joint Forces Command, with headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, has published an appraisal of what it terms the "Joint Operating Environment" that is intended to provide "a perspective on future trends, shocks, contexts, and implications for future joint force commanders and other leaders and professionals in the national security field." True to the US military addiction to acronyms, it is perhaps better known as JOE.

  On China, JOE says that the advice of Beijing's late leader Deng Xiaoping for China to "disguise its ambition and hide its claws" may represent a forthright statement. The Chinese think long-term, JOE says, "to see how their economic and political relations with...]]> Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:00:00 -0800 The mission of this garrison and the air base will be less focused on the threat from North Korea, which can be met by South Korea's increasingly strong forces, and more on threats elsewhere in this region. "Our mission is to provide the Army the installation capabilities and services to support expeditionary operations in a time of persistent conflict," said David Frodsham, a senior civilian official overseeing the garrison's expansion.

  A senior military officer at US Forces Korea in Seoul said that consolidating American military units into US Army Garrison Humphreys would provide "increased strategic flexibility" to respond to crises elsewhere. The project will cost $13...]]> Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:00:00 -0800 Backed symbolically by the 97,000 ton US aircraft carrier John Stennis anchored for a port visit in Hong Kong's harbor, Keating also met informally with senior officers of China's People's Liberation Army in garrison here. Hong Kong, after a century of British colonial rule, was turned over to China in 1997 and became nominally an autonomous region within the People's Republic of China.

  Further, the admiral disclosed that an initiative was underway to forge an agreement intended to prevent hostile incidents between the US and PRC warships at sea. The US and the Soviet Union had an agreement during the Cold War that each navy would not train its guns on the other's warships or to...]]> Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:00:00 -0800 In Beijing, senior officers in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been testing US resolve for at least a dozen years. One after another commander of US forces in this region has felt it prudent to caution the Chinese neither to miscalculate nor to underestimate American determination to remain a power in the Pacific.

  Moreover, the government of President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party are beholden to the PLA to stay in power. They have become uneasy because the international economic crisis, China's own faltering economy, and repeated outbreaks of civil unrest have brought into question their mandate to hold office.

  Ms. Clinton has indicated she plans to take a firm...]]> Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:00:00 -0800 Clinton, who was confirmed as secretary the day after President Obama's inauguration, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "We want a positive and cooperative relationship with China." She added, however, that "this is not a one-way effort. Much of what we will do depends on the choices China makes about its future at home and abroad."

  In a written report, Clinton answered earlier questions from the committee and elaborated on what the US expects: "We can encourage them to become a full and responsible participant in the international community-to join the world in addressing common challengers like climate change and nuclear proliferation-and to make greater progress...]]> Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:00:00 -0800 • Second, he intended to warn the Chinese against miscalculation, the message being: "Don't mess with us."

  Thus it is not hard to imagine the tall, lean, and plain-spoken retired admiral, who has been nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to be the nation's top intelligence officer, looking the president right in the eye during a crisis and delivering a candid report: "Mr. President, here are the facts as best we know them."

  As Director of National Intelligence and the president's principal adviser on intelligence, Blair would be responsible for setting objectives and standards for 16 disparate agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence...]]> Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:00:00 -0800 And they are tired of writhing faces on TV spewing hatred for America. When those people shout: "Yankee, go home," many Americans would like to reply: "Stop the world, we want to get off."

  President-elect Barack Obama may be aware of this fatigue, having campaigned on a promise of hope. Whether he confronts this weariness in his inaugural address will reveal much about his administration. So will the testimony of Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton in Senate confirmation hearings.

  The signs of fatigue show up in poll after poll: One says only 13 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going. In another, 64 percent say America is on the wrong...]]> Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:00:00 -0800 Moreover, the new president's task will be hard because only 33 percent of the eligible voters in America cast their ballots for him. The rest either didn't vote, or voted for Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican candidate, or voted for Ralph Nader or Bob Barr or another third party candidate. Mr. Obama cannot claim a mandate to ram through his proposals.

  Nevertheless, all Americans, even those who didn't vote for him, should wish President Obama well and hope that his presidency is successful, if for no other reason that America cannot afford another four or eight years of discordant, second-rate government.

  The same wish should be true for allies and friends of...]]> Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:00:00 -0800 Cutting through the diplomatic verbiage enveloping what is known as the Six-Party Talks, there's enough fault to go around:

  • North Korea has had no intention of giving up its nuclear program, has tested a weapon, and has indicated that it plans to test again. Pyongyang's purpose has been to string out the negotiations to see what it could get in oil and other economic bribes.

  • China, praised for hosting the talks, has done little to press North Korea. Rather, Beijing has allowed the talks to muddle along while claiming that China has little influence over North Korea. That contention from a rising power is increasingly hard to believe.

  • The United States has...]]> Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:00:00 -0800 Today, among the thousands of recommendations being thrust upon President-elect Barack Obama comes one urging him to perform a virtual kowtow to the leaders of China by going to Beijing shortly after his inauguration.

  The proposal is most ill-advised and shows little understanding of China, past or present. Rather, the new president should invite the Chinese leader, Hu Jintao, to Washington with full honors at an appropriate time.

  Jeffrey Garten, an undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton Administration, has asserted: "Barack Obama's first overseas trip should be to China, and it should occur within a month after his inauguration on January 20. He should bring...]]> Sat, 06 Dec 2008 22:00:00 -0800 In office for six months, Mr. Ma's approval ratings have been running under 30 percent. Ratings for Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, the cabinet, and members of the legislature from the Kuomintang have been about the same. Disapproval ratings have been close to 60 percent all around.

  Like other industrial nations, Taiwan's economy is limping with unemployment rising and inflation threatening. The repercussions are strong as Taiwan, along with South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, has been among the Four Tigers that have enjoyed surging economic progress.

  A political scandal has undermined Taiwan's fledgling democracy with former President Chen Shui-bian having been arrested on...]]> Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0800 In his cover letter authorizing the new strategy, Admiral Keating said "it underscores the fundamental importance of sustained and persistent cooperation and collaboration in times of relative peace to mitigate situations that could lead to conflict and crisis."

  Many Asians and some Americans in recent years have accused the US of going it alone and failing to consult with allies and friends, all wrapped up in the allegation of "unilateralism." In his fifteen months as the Pacific commander, Keating has sought to dispel that image and to stress collective action.

  At the same time, the admiral said the emphasis on security cooperation "does not signal a departure from our...]]> Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0800 While piracy near Somalia has soared in number and audacity, that in the South China Sea in Southeast Asia has been on a steady decline, largely due to the concentrated anti-piracy operations of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Thailand has just joined the campaign while the US and Japan have supported the Southeast Asians in the background.

  The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which tracks piracy worldwide, reported 49 incidents in Southeast Asia during the first nine months of 2008, down from 133 in the same period of 2004. Piracy around the Indonesian archipelago was third in the world, behind Somalia and Nigeria, on Africa's west coast, but...]]> Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0800 Indeed, it might not be too much to say that America today has one president-elect and 300 million advisers who proffer policies to adopt, books and papers to read, and diagrams on how to reorganize the government--all of which, in a robust democracy, may not be such a bad thing.

  In particular, Mr. Obama has been deluged with the names of people who might be appointed to his cabinet or other senior positions in his administration. Therein runs a process that riddled with wondrous irony.

  The president-elected ran a campaign on the theme of "change." That he rarely defined what he proposed to change is immaterial; "change" was to be the byword of the Obama Administration. Yet...]]> Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0800 A senior Foreign Ministry official, Yang Wanming, said the paper proposed "enhancing military cooperation" between China and Latin American nations. On the same day, China put on display for the first time its home-built J10 jet fighter in an air show.

  And a commentator in the government-controlled China Daily urged Obama "to re-charter an American foreign policy that will move away from pre-emptive doctrine to one of resolving nation-to-nation disputes on the table and to embrace more consultation on the world arena while avoiding confrontations."

  Across the Taiwan Strait, President Ma Ying-jeou weighed in with an appeal that "the long friendship between the United States...]]> Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0700 Few today fear that Japan will once again to send its armies through China and Southeast Asia to the gates of India. But there is concern that Japan's alliance with the US is eroding because the US, notably the Bush Administration, has not engaged in the required "high maintenance" to keep Japan "onside" in the political and security game in Asia.

  In a study released this week, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs said many Japanese commentators "have worried that the United States is losing interest in Japan. Japanese anxiety about the American commitment to the alliance has grown out of the Bush administration's active (and to many Japanese, unconditional) engagement of North...]]> Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:00:00 -0700 General Carroll "Howie" Chandler, who commands the Pacific Air Forces, or PACAF, said in an interview: "I asked them to look at what we think we need to carry out our mission, particularly when we have finite resources." A staff officer said the general, in effect, "asked us to tell him where he should spend his next dollar."

  In contrast to PACAF'S upbeat assessment, the publication Defense News reported this week that a study by RAND, the research organization in California, suggested that "US air power in the Pacific would be inadequate to thwart a Chinese attack on Taiwan in 2020." Disagreement over Taiwan, the island claimed by China but informally allied with the US, is the...]]> Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:00:00 -0700 American officials claim that the Filipinos and their American allies are making progress. A senior State Department official, Scot Marciel, said in Washington last month: "The Philippines has improved its economic performance and made substantial progress fighting terrorists who threaten it. The U.S. has supported this counter-terror work, but first and foremost this is a Philippine effort."

  The US ambassador in Manila, Kristie Kenney, noted last month that fighting in the south continued. "These have been difficult months in Mindanao," she acknowledged to a largely Filipino audience: "Yet, I think not one of us has lost hope for the future of Mindanao, for a future that is...]]>