It was the beginning of a new era for the region, and the FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW was a new magazine to report it. In 1946, Asia was still in upheaval; the Pacific War had wrought devastation, a wave of decolonization was sweeping across the region, and China was mired in ideological struggle and civil war. Rural poverty stretched from Korea to Malaya, and in a pre-Asean, pre-APEC and pre-globalization world, few could have imagined that the region's fragmented nations would come together to form an economic powerhouse with integrated supply chains.
Posted December 4, 2009

A former REVIEW contributing editor reflects on what made the magazine successful in its heyday, and why the passing of the region’s old elite makes producing regional media more difficult.
Posted December 4, 2009

The life of a contemporary China-watcher may be measured in “prognosis phases.” These last about five years and come in only two flavors: ebullient and cataclysmic. In my brief involvement with China, I have so far experienced three prognosis phases: “China Takes Over the World I (1992-1997)”, “Oh My God, It’s a Disaster I (1998-2002)” and “China Takes Over the World II (2003-2008).” There are now strong indications that we are entering “Oh My God, It’s a Disaster II (2009-?).”
Posted December 4, 2009

Thaksin Shinawatra’s appointment as an economic adviser to Cambodia and his short visit to Phnom Penh to convey his thanks to Hun Sen have revived Thailand’s political divisions with a vengeance. In November, the royalist Yellow Shirts staged their most prominent rally in almost a year. The pro-Thaksin Red Shirts announced a series of rallies to fell the government. At the Yellow Shirt gathering, a speaker called for the beheading of Hun Sen, Thaksin Shinawatra and ex-premier Chavalit Yongchaiyuth.
Posted December 4, 2009

When Cambodian prime Minister Hun Sen appointed Thaksin Shinawatra as “economic adviser” to the Phnom Penh government, Thailand reacted strongly, canceling a 2001 memorandum of understanding on overlapping maritime boundaries. Diplomats from both countries have been recalled, and a Thai engineer working in Cambodia has been arrested and charged with spying. This is hardly just a “spat”—which is how the Thai media seems to treat the current standoff. But it also is not the most serious crisis in the history of Thai-Cambodian relations.
Posted December 4, 2009

China’s “One Child Policy” is the mother of all social experiments in our modern era. Enforced by the power of a police state for three decades running, this astonishingly ambitious program aims to achieve nothing less than the wholesale transformation of childbearing patterns of the largest country in the world.
Posted December 4, 2009

While there has been a lull in the debate over “Asian values” since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the concept never disappeared. The development of a regional human-rights commission constitutes a fresh battleground where competing views are playing out. As in the past, the main interlocutors on the side of cultural relativism are Singaporean leaders and officials, but this time, opposing voices within Southeast Asia have grown louder and more self-confident.
Posted December 4, 2009

Five years after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, little trace of the disaster remains. The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Aceh and Nias (BRR) wound up operations in May, and policy makers have shifted attention to the Indonesian province’s longer-term development challenges.
Posted December 4, 2009

Beijing has been actively courted in recent months as an indispensable partner in tackling a range of strategic issues, from the global economic crisis to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Despite China’s growing influence in the world, however, Communist Party leaders have expressed concern over the country’s deep deficit of “soft power.” China may be able to throw its weight around, but the world seems impervious to its charm.
Posted December 4, 2009

In speeches and policy pronouncements over the course of this past year, President Barack Obama’s team has offered hints of the new president’s approach to international politics. During his trip to China, he began to convert rhetoric into policy.
Posted December 4, 2009

Having contributed several essays on the development of China’s judiciary to the FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW over the last five years, it is sobering to look back on the fate of those individuals whose plight we discussed. The sufferings of these activists tell us much about the lack of progress to establish the rule of law.
Posted December 4, 2009

This year’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has led many commentators to reflect on the widely diverging fate of communist parties in China and the former Soviet bloc. Whereas in Russia and Eastern Europe communism was consigned almost overnight to the “dustbin of history,” in China two decades of breakneck economic growth, a policy of openness to the outside world, particularly on business, and continued domestic political control have strengthened the rule of the Chinese Communist Party beyond all expectations. Today, the CCP controls more resources, enjoys greater domestic acquiescence and commands far more international respect than it did in 1989.
Posted December 4, 2009

by Tarun Khanna

Passing the Buck on Burma