In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Asia-Pacific

03 Oct

The Japanese Prime Minister made clear in remarks yesterday that he has no intention of proposing international arbitration to settle or mediate the ongoing Senkaku/Diaoyu Island dispute with China.  Indeed, China's government-controlled English language paper, noted the inconsistency of Japan's position given its willingness to send its similar dispute with South Korea to the ICJ. (A point I noted here). Noda...

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20 Sep

The former owners of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, whose sale to the Japanese government has unleashed hundreds of violent anti-Japan protests across China, are calling for Japan to send the dispute to the International Court of Justice. China is very outspoken about its position over the Senkaku Islands, but Japan has its own position as well, and it needs to get that...

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19 Sep

Courtesy of Shanghaiist, a video of Chinese protesters (about the 1 minute mark) surrounding U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke's car in Beijing. The protesters throw bottles, try to grab the car, and shout: "Down With American Imperialists!"  Boy, so much fun to be a U.S. diplomat these days. ...

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15 Sep

While U.S. embassies around the Middle East continue to face angry mobs, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing also faced its own angry (but less violent) mob today.  As China blogger Sinostand reports, hundreds of Chinese citizens threw eggs and rocks at the Japanese Embassy in protest at Japan's actions to nationalize the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea....

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21 Aug

While I am at it, I might as well flog my most recent piece on China's relationship with international tribunals and international adjudication more generally.  This study, which attempts to document all of China's treaties that include compulsory dispute resolution clauses (excepting bilateral investment treaties), concludes that China is unlikely to become a strong supporter and participant in mechanisms of...

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20 Aug

I've been trapped in an August blogging-slump. But I am roused to my keyboard by the surge of territorial disputes in Asia.  China has aggressively asserted ever stronger and more expansive claims in the South China Sea, sparking dissension amongst the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and serious protests in Vietnam and the Philippine.  China, Taiwan, and Japan are...

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13 Jun

Public Citizen, an anti-free trade group based here in the U.S., sent around an email detailing its objections to a leaked draft text of the ongoing TransPacific Partnership negotiations, which would create a massive Pacific free-trade zone.  Its main complaint is not actually to the free-trade portion of the agreement, but to the proposals for a robust investor-state dispute resolution...

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15 May

Like thousands of other high school kids, today is AP Comparative Government exam day in the Alford household. According to the AP College Board, "The course aims to illustrate the rich diversity of political life, to show available institutional alternatives, to explain differences in processes and policy outcomes, and to communicate to students the importance of global political and economic changes." But in order to move the discussion from the abstract to the concrete, AP Comp. Gov. students are required to study six--and only six--representative countries. Can you guess the six countries chosen as suitable for comparison? And could you answer the short- or long-essay questions these high school whiz kids are required to answer? Details after the jump:
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03 May

The Chen Guangcheng saga is not yet completed, and indeed, as the NYT puts it, "what briefly looked like a deft diplomatic achievement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton [has] turned into a potential debacle."  I do hope Mr. Chen will find safety and justice soon, but I am not optimistic. Until we discover his final fate, I thought I'd...

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17 Apr

I've been following the standoff between the Philippines Navy and Chinese "surveillance" ships in the South China Sea (or West Philippines Sea) with some concern. As I noted here, China has some rather expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea that countries like the Philippines are resisting.  But given the relative sizes of their navies, it is obvious that...

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