Comments by Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi recently to Japanese and South Korean guests at a forum that they could never be a Westerner, and encouraging greater China-Japan-South Korean cooperation have ignited some backlash in Japan. Academic Shin Kawashima says that it would be almost unthinkable for Japan and South Korea to respond to such a call from China.
Korea
Politics
With South Korea working on bilateral and multilateral international relations, especially with the US and Japan, it is perhaps unsurprising that China is not quite at ease with South Korea’s stand. Recent comments by Chinese ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming implying that South Korea’s pro-US stance will not lead to a good outcome has raised hackles in South Korea. Academic Kang Jun-young tells us more.
Politics
Japan and South Korea’s recent closeness may not just be a product of wariness of China, but US interests too, says Jin Kai, a visiting scholar at the Yonsei Institute for Sinology at Yonsei University, Seoul. But is closer Japan-South Korea-US trilateral cooperation sustainable amid tense dynamics in East Asia and the Korean peninsula?
Politics
Former Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who had a meteoric rise and just as swift a fall, was thought to have adopted a more measured tone in China’s foreign policy. Are fears of a return to wolf warrior diplomacy under Wang Yi unfounded? Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Edwin Ong assesses the situation.
Technology
US giant Micron Technology Inc. is facing a series of setbacks in China. With Chinese companies unlikely to take the risk of purchasing Micron products, who will fill the gap?
Society
It has been 12 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami that damaged a nuclear power plant at Fukushima. As plans progress to release treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant into the sea, Lianhe Zaobao journalists Tan Jet Min and Foo Choo Wei explore the challenges in the decision, as well as the difficulties facing related industries, such as fishing.
Technology
With China barring domestic operators of critical information infrastructure from procuring products from US chipmaker Micron as the latest move in the China-US chip war, there are concerns about whether moving too strongly might lead to China hurting itself instead. Zaobao correspondent Chen Jing takes a look at how the chip war might play out.
Politics
There have been recent signs of thaw in Japan-South Korea relations, not least with Japanese President Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol visiting the monument dedicated to the Koreans who died in the Hiroshima atomic bombing at the sidelines of the G7 summit. What are the larger motivations for the rapprochement and how will this affect the regional dynamics?
Politics
South Korea has far-reaching geopolitical ambitions but focusing on the regions closest to it will bring more dividends in a competitive world.