Police are watching carefully ..read more

At least part of it stems from ‘Trump-proofing’ the alliance ..read more

By: Andy Wong Ming Jun Singapore’s July 19 use of its so-called foreign Interference law against renegade Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, which aims to prohibit foreign actors from swaying the country’s politics, came as a surprise. Guo, a controversial figure with ties to those close to former president Donald Trump and a loud critic of the Chinese Communist… Read more ..read more

Slavery and segregation were supposedly abolished in the US by President Abraham Lincoln with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. But the obsession with “blood” carries on, not least among those media organs such as the New York Times which see themselves as liberal and anti-racist seemingly cannot get away from the assumpt… Read more ..read more

Find the needle in the haystack Since the takeover of Hong Kong by Beijing, the city’s financial and trade strengths have been co-opted to facilitate the transfer of money and restricted technology to Russia, Iran, and North Korea with the tacit agreement of the government, according to an explosive report published by the New York-based Committee for Fr… Read more ..read more

By: Toh Han Shih Entry March of the boyars. Photo from Radio Free Asia The Chinese Communist Party’s Third Plenum in Beijing was delayed for months probably because President Xi Jinping, seeking a fourth term at China’s helm, had to purge senior officials including former top ministers and military officials including former Xi proteges, say analysts. The… Read more ..read more

By: Nava Thakuria In a bid to calm violence that has shaken Bangladesh for weeks, taking the lives of at least 133, the country’s highest court last night ruled to reduce the quota of government jobs reserved for families connected to early freedom fighters and directed that 93 percent of government jobs be selected on merit. Rather than scrapping the controversial reservation policy altogether, the top court decreased the quota from 30 percent to 5 percent. But the court’s ruling may not quell the protest, as rioting students have vowed to continue until the government abolishes outright w ..read more

By: Timothy F. Hamlett There is a bogus Arab saying, usually attributed to the 17th-century English writer Francis Bacon, which goes, “If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain.” Some similar sentiment seems to have animated the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, which next month is launching a Hong Kong Shopping Festiva… Read more ..read more

US Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance as his running mate is unlikely to be seen as good news by America’s major allies. For sure, compared with Trump himself, Vance seems to be intelligent and cool-headed, however far some of his opinions may have had to shift to accommodate the expectations not only of Trump himself but of his many faithful followers. The problem is that Vance probably has a more consistent view of how he views US interests and, assuming Trump is selected, seems likely to have a bigger input into policy than has been the norm for vice presidents as ..read more

By: David Brown Nguyễn Phú Trọng. Photo from Radio Free Asia As Asia Sentinel reported earlier today, July 18, a communique issued on July 18 strongly suggested that Vietnam’s top leader, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, was on his deathbed. It has since been reported that Trọng, who has been Secretary General of the nation’s Communist Party since 2011, has died.  After turning back a challenger on the eve of the party’s 2016 congress in 2016 and notwithstanding a stroke in mid-2019, Trong had until recent months exercised unrivaled power. Our original story picks up here. This spring, reports ci ..read more