THIS YEAR WILL confront many leaders in Asia, especially in Beijing and Islamabad, with exceptionally difficult tests.
For the US, stuck with a lame- duck president and a tedious election campaign, the tests will not come until a new president enters the White House in January next year.
The authoritarian leaders in Beijing, who are promoting the Olympic Games in August as an emblem of China's arrival as a great power, will be tested by their handling of the hordes of foreign athletes, spectators and journalists who will descend on the capital.
Chinese political activists are almost certain to draw attention to Beijing's violations of human rights, while religious activists, such as Falun Gong, will most likely find ways to protest the regime's repression of freedom of worship.
It could be 1989 all over again. Advocates of democracy camped in Beijing's Tiananmen Square attracted foreign press and TV coverage from reporters who had journeyed to China to report on the visit of then-Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev. When demonstrations erupted and were put down brutally, the news flashed around the world.
Moreover, China's leaders may find it hard to conceal the country's economic shortcomings that were recently outlined in a World Bank report, or its corruption, civil unrest, censorship, pollution and other environmental problems.
Across the continent, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, or his successor if he does not survive in office, faces the difficult task of holding together a country at risk of splitting apart after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. At the very least, the Pakistani leader will need to establish some semblance of order in that stricken country.
The test that much of the rest of the world is watching is whether Pakistan's stash of nuclear weapons -- reported to number 60 -- can be kept away from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or other radical groups operating in the country. Pakistani military officers say they have control of the weapons -- but the allegiance of some officers may be in doubt.
Back in East Asia, a new president in Taiwan is scheduled to be elected in March and to take office in May.
A critical task for the new leader will be to decide whether to rebuild relations with Washington and, if so, figure out how to go about it.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has shown calculated disregard for Washington's efforts to maintain a balance between China and Taiwan. Moreover, some US officials think Taiwan has been lax in preparing to defend the country from a China that has repeatedly threatened to use military force to conquer it.
In Seoul, similar tasks will confront president-elect Lee Myung-bak when he takes office next month. Many US officials view the current president, Roh Moo-hyun, as having been anti-US throughout his term. Roh has disparaged South Korea's alliance with the US and adopted a policy toward North Korea that borders on appeasement.
North of the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula, the leader of the regime in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-il, will continue to be confronted with at least two difficult decisions. One is whether to give up his nuclear weapons, which he has given little sign he is ready to do. The other is to remain in power and to name a successor.
Whiffs of civil unrest resulting from near starvation and hints of dissent, including from the army that assures Kim's power, occasionally waft out of that dark and isolated land, but they are so fleeting that no one gives them much credence. His father, Kim Il-sung, assured Kim Jong-il's rise to power by appointing him successor long before he passed away.
In Southeast Asia, Islamic terrorists in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia promise to keep the leaders awake at night. If the past is any indication, those who hold office in the ASEAN won't be of much help in defeating the terrorists.
Preoccupied with their own politics, Americans may have little to say about how the pressing issues of Asia are met this year. Indeed, the new US president will most likely find himself or herself having to plunge into a thicket of changes in Asia over which the US has had little or no influence.
Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.
Taiwan’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship is an historic achievement. Yet once again this achievement is marred by the indignity of the imposed moniker “Chinese Taipei.” The absurdity is compounded by the fact that none of the players are even from Taipei, and some, such as Paiwan catcher Giljegiljaw Kungkuan, are not even ethnically Chinese. The issue garnered attention around the Paris Olympics, yet fell off the agenda as Olympic memories retreated. “Chinese Taipei” persists, and the baseball championship serves as a reminder that fighting “Chinese Taipei” must be a continuous campaign, not merely resurfacing around international
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) appears to be encountering some culture shock and safety issues at its new fab in Arizona. On Nov. 7, Arizona state authorities cited TSMC for worker safety violations, fining the company US$16,131, after a man died in May. The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health released its six-month investigation into the fatality and cited TSMC for failing to keep the workplace free from hazards likely to cause death or serious harm. At about the same time, the chip giant was also sued for alleged discriminatory hiring practices favoring Asians, prompting a flurry of debate on whether TSMC’s
This month, the National Health Insurance (NHI) is to implement a major policy change by eliminating the suspension-and-resumption mechanism for Taiwanese residing abroad. With more than 210,000 Taiwanese living overseas — many with greater financial means than those in Taiwan — this reform, catalyzed by a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, underscores the importance of fairness, sustainability and shared responsibility in one of the world’s most admired public healthcare systems. Beyond legal obligations, expatriates have a compelling moral duty to contribute, recognizing their stake in a system that embodies the principle of health as a human right. The ruling declared the prior
US president-elect Donald Trump is inheriting from President Joe Biden a challenging situation for American policy in the Indo-Pacific region, with an expansionist China on the march and threatening to incorporate Taiwan, by force if necessary. US policy choices have become increasingly difficult, in part because Biden’s policy of engagement with China, including investing in personal diplomacy with President Xi Jinping (習近平), has not only yielded little but also allowed the Chinese military to gain a stronger footing in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. In Xi’s Nov. 16 Lima meeting with a diminished Biden, the Chinese strongman signaled little
RSS