china
But soft power loses its gauzy delicacy when human-rights lawyers are jailed and their supporters harassed. The world has one Nobel Peace Prize laureate in jail, and he languishes in a Chinese prison. For all the positive developments in China — and there are so many, from poverty alleviation and upward mobility, not to mention digital innovation and expanding consumer choice — official repression of free thinkers only serves to outline the steely fist of authoritarianism.
A highly-anticipated appearance in Beijing by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s favorite girl band was abruptly cancelled Saturday, hours before the group was set to perform and with no official explanation given. [...] the group — which was accompanied by an army orchestra, the State Merited Chorus – arrived in Beijing on Thursday and was expected to stay until next Tuesday on what the North Korean official news agency KCNA described as a “friendship visit” to China.
India selected Japan to help build its first high-speed rail link in a coup for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a defeat for China, which also had bid for the signature project. The $15 billion deal clinches three years of negotiations and reflects the deepening relationship between India and Japan stemming from the personal relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe.
PD News headlines look back at news coverage on the COP21 climate change conference.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has despatched his all-female dance troupe on a six-day mission to China in an effort to rebuild relations with their northern neighbor. This is the first time the all-girl band have been allowed out of the secretive state as Pyongyang attempts a diplomatic rapprochement with Beijing.
A new position at Kyoto University, research on nation branding and propaganda, and an upcoming book on Japan’s struggle to “go global.”
Japan is set to build India's first bullet train, with Tokyo financing the project through an $8 billion loan to New Delhi [...] [The Nikkei said] that the two countries will issue a joint statement about the deal on Saturday during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India [...]The report comes after Japan failed to win a high-speed train deal in Indonesia earlier this year, losing out to a Chinese proposal.
The former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan once commented that the most difficult thing about politics was "events, dear boy, events." Events can be helpful or unhelpful coincidences for statesmen. [...] The West needs to engage seriously with Turkey.