https://www.scmp.com/rss/35480/feed Cold War is a film set in Hong Kong and directed by Sunny Luk Kim-ching and Longman Leung Lok-man. Starring Tony Leung Ka-fai and Aaron Kwok, the plot centres around attempts to locate a hijacked police van containing five officers. Cold War was born out of his and Leung's fixation on the political manoeuvres of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primaries for the 2008 US presidential election. Release date: November 2012. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com They say behind every great man there is a great woman - and award-winning Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai has revealed he has three. In an interview with Darizi Men's, the actor - who stars in the upcoming movie Cold War - spoke of the support he gets from his wife and daughters. "I feel I am very lucky, when I was young I was already married with children. I had a complete family, which enabled me to maintain stability." And he admitted that sometimes his acting affected his emotions off the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1058508/i-am-very-lucky-tony-leung-ka-fai-three-women-his-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1058508/i-am-very-lucky-tony-leung-ka-fai-three-women-his-life?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:31:52 +0000 A glittering line-up of top Asian cinema stars converged on the South Korean port city of Busan on Thursday for the opening of the region’s premier international film festival. Along with Korean heartthrobs Lee Byung-hun and Jun Ji-hyun, Chinese stars Tang Wei and Cecilia Cheung are attending the 10-day Busan International Film Festival. Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi — currently taking legal action against a number of news outlets over claims the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star was a prostitute... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1053916/hong-kong-thriller-opens-asias-top-film-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1053916/hong-kong-thriller-opens-asias-top-film-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:58:40 +0000 Towards the end of the shoot for their directorial debut, Cold War, Sunny Luk Kim-ching and Longman Leung Lok-man had a problem - they had run out of time and money to film a huge passing-out parade for the grand finale of their police drama. "Our producers told us we were already over budget and it was becoming very hard to accommodate the actors' schedules with ours, so we thought we might have to forgo our original idea," said Leung. "Then we looked out of the window and said, well, how about... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1050992/government-hq-admiralty-gets-first-film-role-cold-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1050992/government-hq-admiralty-gets-first-film-role-cold-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 For 31 years, Rene Seiptius had been counted among the thousands of people killed while trying to escape the confines of communist East Germany. As it turns out, he was alive all along. "I can't explain how it could have happened," Seiptius said. Seiptius first attempted to cross the deadly strip of land that once separated East Germany from the West in 1981, when he was 17. He and two friends managed to tiptoe past a row of minefields, but they triggered fire from an automatic spring gun. One... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1014839/berlin-wall-escapee-billed-dead-31-years-alive-and-well?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1014839/berlin-wall-escapee-billed-dead-31-years-alive-and-well?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The military elements underpinning the US tilt back towards the Asian region are fast moving into place. While the headlines surrounding the so-called pivot involve future big-ticket deployments -new US coastal fighting ships to Singapore, 60 per cent of all US naval assets in the Pacific by 2020 and the eventual posting of 2,500 marines to northern Australia - lesser noticed moves show the shift is well under way. And it is already expanding in scope and reach. Recent moves in the Philippines,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006850/piecing-together-pacific-pivot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006850/piecing-together-pacific-pivot?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A while back, when I was visiting my mother's ancestral village in Thai Binh province, North Vietnam, it occurred to me that, after a barrage of questions from distant relatives, not once did anyone ask that common question in America: 'So, what do you do?' Instead the questions were familial and personal: 'How is your mother? Do you own a car? Are you married?' When I volunteered my profession - 'I am a journalist' - I was met with polite nods and smiles. A guaranteed conversation-starter in... https://www.scmp.com/article/1002746/us-provides-fertile-ground-ambition-price?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1002746/us-provides-fertile-ground-ambition-price?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It is fitting that you can form the word 'trap' out of transparency. As the debate about the need for transparency in China's military build-up continues along its fairly predictable path, there is one interesting wrinkle that is often forgotten - that the PLA is trying to become an asymmetric power. Through weapons such as cyber-warfare, the as-yet-untested DF-21 'carrier-killer' ballistic missile and its long-term submarine programme, the PLA intends to create an effective deterrent against a... https://www.scmp.com/article/996720/booby-traps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/996720/booby-traps?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 In his five-decade-long career as a filmmaker, Werner Herzog has been called an iconoclast, a humanist, even a madman. But even his detractors would probably balk at thinking of the German as an 'opportunistic lackey for the CIA' - which, in 1985, was how US scholar and indigenous-rights activist Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz described him in a pamphlet she distributed outside the San Francisco screenings of his documentary, Ballad of the Little Soldier. The 45-minute piece has at its centre the... https://www.scmp.com/article/995081/ballad-little-soldier?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995081/ballad-little-soldier?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 I am writing in response to the letter 'Government could do more to promote important second world war sites' (South China Morning Post, December 28). I agree it is important to promote second world war sites, such as old gun batteries, artillery observation posts and bunkers. The second world war was a global conflict that involved most of the world's nations. Historical sites can serve as reminders of the war's terrible legacy. Education is always the best way to encourage peace. By promoting... https://www.scmp.com/article/989857/lets-promote-second-world-war-sites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989857/lets-promote-second-world-war-sites?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Chinese leaders have finally realised that they are facing a new cold war. Over the past few months, Washington has put together a 'containment' package in Asia that includes a new military doctrine of air-sea battle, a new economic game changer in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the rotation of US marines in Australia. For years, mainstream Chinese analysts have refused to see this coming. Now, President Hu Jintao has publicly called on the navy to 'prepare for future military... https://www.scmp.com/article/987891/playing-it-cool?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987891/playing-it-cool?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It may be fuelling online rage and diplomatic intrigue, but recently released YouTube footage showing a Vietnamese ship harassing a Chinese Marine Surveillance vessel in the South China Sea is raising more questions than answers. As nationalists in each country trade fierce barbs online, regional envoys and military analysts are trying to confirm key details about the incident. So far, Hanoi and Beijing are saying nothing. 'We've been hearing for a while from the Vietnamese side that there've... https://www.scmp.com/article/984658/questions-over-boat-ramming-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984658/questions-over-boat-ramming-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The Issues A close-up on the war The global war on drugs has stumbled more than it has succeeded. It has been troubled by patchy leadership and a contradictory history. One such case was revealed by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Gary Webb, who wrote a series of stories in 1996 linking America's spy agency CIA to cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles. His series, Dark Alliance, which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, revealed that the CIA had backed the transport of cocaine... https://www.scmp.com/article/981709/uphill-battle-cocaine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981709/uphill-battle-cocaine?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 China and Vietnam have agreed to seek a long-term resolution to a territorial dispute in the South China Sea that has stoked tensions between the two countries. A six-point agreement, signed on Tuesday by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and his Vietnamese counterpart, Ho Xuan Son, and posted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website yesterday, said it was in accordance with a consensus reached by the countries' leaders and based on a 1993 agreement on basic principles for resolving... https://www.scmp.com/article/981717/china-vietnam-seal-accord-over-maritime-territory?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981717/china-vietnam-seal-accord-over-maritime-territory?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Two decades on, there's no more potent symbol of the reunification of East and West Germany than the former Iron Curtain. Running from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border in a 1,400km zigzag, the barbed wire and fortifications have long gone, replaced by nature reserves. This happy example of swords being turned into ploughshares is a haven for hikers and bikers - and wildlife has flourished, with black storks, wild cats, wood grouse and rare mosses thriving in the wilds. The local tourism... https://www.scmp.com/article/980824/nature-reserves-are-haven-hikers-and-bikers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/980824/nature-reserves-are-haven-hikers-and-bikers?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali continue to be growing Southeast Asian markets for MICE business, according to Matt Masson, chief operating officer of Trails of IndoChina, a major destination management company operating in six places in the region. 'These destinations have hosted large numbers of corporate organisations across the banking and finance sector, and a variety of other industries, with the size of groups ranging from 20 to 1,000,' he says. Among the locations, Vietnam is... https://www.scmp.com/article/978936/region-grows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/978936/region-grows?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Behind Dr Gabriele Gauler, a confused and tense crowd stands frozen. Young, old they stand, perch and clamber onto a graffiti-covered wall lit by harsh floodlights on a dark night. The crowd is nervous, unsure of whether to believe the explosive news: East and West Berlin would no longer be divided. 'For Germany it was a lucky end,' says Gauler, the new director of the German Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong, gesturing at the photo of that historic night in November 1989 when the Berlin wall came... https://www.scmp.com/article/976161/recalling-germanys-long-dark-night?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976161/recalling-germanys-long-dark-night?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Scorched Earth, Black Snow: Britain and Australia in the Korean War, 1950 by Andrew Salmon Arum Press The men who fought the Korean war are still often bitter that their contribution to the conflict that showed the United Nations to be toothless remains overlooked by history. Speak today to veterans of the conflict - which broke out 61 years ago on June 25 - and they feel they are the forgotten men of a largely forgotten conflict. These men endured some of the most brutal fighting... https://www.scmp.com/article/973039/scorched-earth-black-snow-britain-and-australia-korean-war-1950?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/973039/scorched-earth-black-snow-britain-and-australia-korean-war-1950?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 China and Vietnam pledged yesterday to resolve the territorial disputes over the South China Sea through peaceful negotiations, Beijing said following their first high-level talks since the long-standing maritime disagreement took a nosedive last month. Analysts said it was a sign that the increased tension over the potentially natural resources-rich waters was easing, although one said it did not represent any key breakthrough. The apparent friendly gesture between the bickering neighbours... https://www.scmp.com/article/971846/china-vietnam-vow-peaceful-end-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/971846/china-vietnam-vow-peaceful-end-sea-row?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It was one of the most quotable quotes of the 20th century. When asked about the influence of the French Revolution, the late premier Zhou Enlai is reputed to have said: 'Too early to say.' If that was what he really meant, it was a perfectly pompous answer. But somehow, coming as it did from China's foremost diplomat, it sounded profound. It became an example of the patient and far-sighted nature of Chinese leaders, who thought in centuries, as opposed to the short-termism of Western... https://www.scmp.com/article/970657/not-letting-facts-ruin-good-story?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/970657/not-letting-facts-ruin-good-story?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000 US Defence Secretary Dr Robert Gates yesterday warned of possible naval clashes in the South China Sea unless a fast regional solution could be found to ease rising tensions. His comments to a security conference in Singapore came a day after a meeting with Defence Minister Liang Guanglie and amid fresh incidents at sea between China and both the Philippines and Vietnam. 'I fear without rules of the road... that there will be clashes [in the South China Sea],' Gates said after a speech to the... https://www.scmp.com/article/969733/gates-calls-swift-action-avoid-clashes-caused-south-china-sea-tension?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/969733/gates-calls-swift-action-avoid-clashes-caused-south-china-sea-tension?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It is known as the AirSea Battle concept for the Western Pacific - and, depending on whom you listen to, it is either a dangerously provocative piece of cold war-era strategy from the Pentagon or a shrewd US approach to new threats underpinning China's rise. Mentioned briefly first in a major strategic review last year, the concept is fast evolving on the desks of strategists in the Pentagon and the Pacific Command in Hawaii - and is starting to resonate across the region. Chinese envoys are... https://www.scmp.com/article/965993/beijing-wary-new-us-military-strategy-emerges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965993/beijing-wary-new-us-military-strategy-emerges?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 RETURNING WITH A SAGA I was in the United States Navy in 1946 and we operated out of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Qingdao. I fell in love with Hong Kong then and vowed to come back and stay. I was in the deck crew of the USS Norris, which meant I had to sweep the deck and serve the crew their dinner. In 1954, I returned on a cargo ship called the Eastern Saga - which is the name of my book. We took five days to make the journey from Osaka, Japan. In those days, big ships weren't permitted to... https://www.scmp.com/article/736485/marvin-farkas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/736485/marvin-farkas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Even for an officer who had fought throughout the second world war, it was a hideous sight: dozens of shot-up trucks, heaped with the bleeding bodies of butchered American infantry, crawling south through the freezing mountains south of Kunu-Ri Pass, North Korea. Major David Wilson of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a highly experienced veteran of the war against Japan, had never seen anything like it before. He was reminded of passages he had read of Elizabethan naval battles: 'I had... https://www.scmp.com/article/718023/bloody-debut-new-superpower?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/718023/bloody-debut-new-superpower?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000 What if there really were a war on the Korean Peninsula? The rhetoric has been heated since the South Korean warship Cheonan was sunk by an explosion in March, killing 46 sailors, and it has been white-hot since investigators reported last month that a North Korean torpedo struck the vessel. So suppose there is a local clash somewhere along the demilitarised zone between the two countries, or at sea along the disputed maritime frontier. Suppose it escalates. What would a full-scale war between... https://www.scmp.com/article/715868/disaster-pyongyang-outcome-any-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/715868/disaster-pyongyang-outcome-any-war?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 May 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Several years ago, Korean-born author Jid Lee was watching The Oprah Winfrey Show when she had an epiphany. On air was an interview with African-American Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who remarked that she began to write because she feared that if she didn't she would die. Lee realised that the same cathartic process had compelled her to write a multi-generational memoir that weaves her family's tortured history with that of modern-day Korea. Lee's book, To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea,... https://www.scmp.com/article/715663/memoir-mirrors-koreas-torment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/715663/memoir-mirrors-koreas-torment?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 May 2010 16:00:00 +0000 There was no more powerful symbol of the cold war than the Berlin Wall. When it fell 20 years ago today, the euphoria and excitement of East Germans as they streamed to the West was shared by a world weary of mistrust, threats and propaganda. The momentum grew and, domino-like, iron-fisted communist rule was replaced across Eastern Europe by democracy and capitalism. But the optimism of those days now seems long ago; the global peace that had been so longed for did not eventuate and amid... https://www.scmp.com/article/697773/bringing-barriers-down-helps-road-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/697773/bringing-barriers-down-helps-road-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000 In biblical times, a trumpet fanfare caused the fortifications around the city of Jericho to tumble to the ground. In the 18th century, a furious mob sacked the Bastille in Paris, sparking the start of the French Revolution and sounding the death knell of the monarchy. But, in November 1989, not a drop of blood was shed as German citizens stormed across the Berlin Wall that had divided the city and became an icon of repression, marking the end of the cold war and the start of a brave new era. In... https://www.scmp.com/article/694310/berlin-celebrates-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/694310/berlin-celebrates-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000 In a little noted change in US nuclear policy, President Barack Obama last week threatened to employ nuclear weapons against North Korea in retaliation for a nuclear attack on South Korea. Rarely, if ever, has the US disclosed when, under what circumstances or in which country it would use nuclear weapons. Instead, US nuclear doctrine has been wrapped in generalities and ambiguity intended to deter a potential adversary from a nuclear attack by keeping him guessing. Day to day, that doctrine... https://www.scmp.com/article/684390/obama-brings-out-nuclear-umbrella?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/684390/obama-brings-out-nuclear-umbrella?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:00:00 +0000 Vietnam is reportedly close to finalising a US$1.8 billion deal with Russia to buy six Kilo-class submarines - a move that could carry sweeping implications for regional security. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a report in the Russian business daily Kommersant that the deal to deliver six of the diesel-electric submarines to the Vietnamese navy had been under discussion for a year and would soon be completed. If finalised, the deal would complete a two-decade effort by Hanoi to... https://www.scmp.com/article/678349/vietnam-set-buy-6-russian-submarines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/678349/vietnam-set-buy-6-russian-submarines?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0000 On many levels, the Sino-Vietnamese border is no place for the faint-hearted. A 1,350km arc that traverses jungle and mountains, it stretches from the Gulf of Tonkin to a high mountain pass in Yunnan where the borders of China, Laos and Vietnam intersect. Recent decades have seen it plagued by war, smuggling and simmering tensions between Beijing and Hanoi. It stands as a symbol of ancient and lingering suspicions but also of the promise of peace between two nations whose relationship is... https://www.scmp.com/article/661852/border-stones-can-point-way-forward?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/661852/border-stones-can-point-way-forward?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:00:00 +0000 With the eyes of the world on China during the Olympics, it is time to take a hard look at the China debate in the United States. It is troubling: the discussion is dominated by alarmist rhetoric and outdated ideas that risk driving both sides into a new cold war. One of the most sensitive issues is China's military development, a fair cause for concern. But the question we must ask is not how to counter China's growing military, but how to engage it to ensure greater transparency, trust, and... https://www.scmp.com/article/649120/true-security?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/649120/true-security?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Given the history of hostility between Vietnam and its former enemies China and the US, they make strange bedfellows. Yet Hanoi is now the stage for an increasingly elaborate diplomatic tango. It's a sign of the strategic shifts under way in the region as smaller countries adjust to China's rise. Despite lingering suspicions, Vietnam has been deepening and broadening relations with its giant neighbour, with whom it shares a 1,400km land border. At the same time, Vietnam is quietly building... https://www.scmp.com/article/634084/look-whos-talking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/634084/look-whos-talking?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000 In the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern commercial hub, is a little piece of North Korea. The Pyongyang Taedonggang restaurant - owned by a state trading firm from Pyongyang and staffed by a highly trained female propaganda troupe - is packing them in nightly in an upstairs room on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street on the edge of the city's downtown. Lonely South Korean businessmen hit the rice liquor and sway to northern love songs, dreaming of reunification. Their Japanese... https://www.scmp.com/article/632674/swathed-silk-and-song-pyongyangs-propaganda-easy-swallow-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/632674/swathed-silk-and-song-pyongyangs-propaganda-easy-swallow-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000 From the South China Morning Post this week in: 1962 'This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the last week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. 'Upon receiving the first preliminary... https://www.scmp.com/article/612568/slice-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/612568/slice-life?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:00:00 +0000 The Ugly American Starring: Marlon Brando, Eiji Okada, Kukrit Pramoj Director: George Englund The film: Two books published in the 1950s were particularly prescient in suggesting the intentions of US political and military ambitions in Indochina. The first was Graham Greene's The Quiet American, published in 1955 and followed three years later by The Ugly American, a novel about attempted US containment of communism in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan. Written by Eugene... https://www.scmp.com/article/607269/vault-1963?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/607269/vault-1963?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:00:00 +0000 The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan, edited by Douglas Brinkley HarperCollins, HK$280 These diaries, written by Ronald Reagan during his two terms as president, reveal no White House secrets, intrigues or scandals. They don't offer much insight into Reagan himself, either. Written in an abbreviated style more akin to a daily planner than a work of literature, the weighty, 700-page tome is a slog to get through. But with perseverance Diaries becomes a gripping read, due in large part to... https://www.scmp.com/article/602239/reagan-diaries?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/602239/reagan-diaries?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Environment is the big loser Our Environmental Protection Department bureaucrats are to be congratulated on their masterstroke of permitting the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal at South Soko Island. It has simultaneously solved several problems and bestowed a magnificent benefit on CLP Power. With this decision, the problem of a sustainable fishery has been solved by facilitating its destruction. The government will save money because it will not have to compensate the... https://www.scmp.com/article/587883/letters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/587883/letters?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:00:00 +0000 China's burgeoning relationship with Russia is based on economic, energy and military considerations, but there is also a geopolitical dimension that is troubling for some nations, the US among them. Beijing needs to take this into consideration when furthering its co-operation so as not to cause undue tensions. Ties between China and Russia have led to friction with Washington several times in recent months. As the sides grow closer, the possibility of greater suspicion, and as a result the... https://www.scmp.com/article/582887/china-russia-must-allay-fears-over-warming-ties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/582887/china-russia-must-allay-fears-over-warming-ties?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Report says oil deals with continent could sour Sino-western relations China's growing investment in Africa's oil and gas resources could eclipse the political influence of the west in the energy-rich continent and sour Sino-western relations, according to an international security journal. Western powers like the US, Britain and France played significant roles in African politics - a legacy of colonial rule and cold war alignment on the continent - but China's 'no strings' financial and... https://www.scmp.com/article/575506/african-ties-threaten-influence-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/575506/african-ties-threaten-influence-west?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:00:00 +0000 US control akin to outsourcing the country's leader, Roh says Washington's push to hand over wartime command of South Korean forces has prompted a fierce and intensifying debate, with liberals insisting the issue runs to the core of South Korean sovereignty and conservatives warning it threatens the country's security. President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday strongly defended his insistence on a change of command, comparing Washington's role to hiring a foreigner as the country's leader. 'Defence... https://www.scmp.com/article/562367/president-defends-push-take-over-troop-command?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/562367/president-defends-push-take-over-troop-command?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:00:00 +0000 The PLA has built two facilities in Gansu to simulate an air force base in Taiwan, a Canada-based military news website has reported. The Kanwa Defence Review said high-quality satellite photographs it bought from Google showed two facilities were set up near the Dingxin airport in Jiayuguan . It said the facilities were modelled on the Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taiwan and claimed it indicated the PLA has stepped up its preparation for 'military struggles' against Taiwan. The website... https://www.scmp.com/article/558386/pla-using-models-air-base-plan-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/558386/pla-using-models-air-base-plan-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jul 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Rising Chinese ambition will not collide with American dominance because of their closer co-operation and shared interests, a former US secretary of state said yesterday. 'There is no better way to find an enemy than to go looking for one,' James Baker told a lunch in Hong Kong. 'To view any expansion of China's role in world affairs as somehow 'sinister' will only increase the misunderstanding and mistrust that already complicate the Sino-American relationship.' Mr Baker, who served in senior... https://www.scmp.com/article/541709/closer-ties-reduce-risk-conflict-ex-official?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/541709/closer-ties-reduce-risk-conflict-ex-official?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Mar 2006 16:00:00 +0000 The European Parliament is pushing for what was once the Iron Curtain to be transformed into a 6,800km tourist trail, targeting bikers, hikers and history buffs. The campaign, headed by German Green Euro-MP Michael Cramer, was launched this week. It comes as the finishing touches are put to the Berlin Mauerweg, or Berlin Wall Trail, a green pathway along the former barricade. The parliament has a similar vision for the entire former communist division between west and east: 'A 6,800km ... https://www.scmp.com/article/520326/vision-iron-curtain-tourism-green-belt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/520326/vision-iron-curtain-tourism-green-belt?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The thunder of the guns has long faded, but in the South Korean port city of Inchon, another battle is under way: a statue of US general Douglas MacArthur gazing over the scene of his most dramatic victory has become a flashpoint in a national debate on reinterpretations of the Korean war and Korean-American relations. 'This is not just a statue of a general, this is a symbol of all UN forces and thousands of dead,' thundered a former labour minister to roars of approval from 3,000 ex-marines... https://www.scmp.com/article/516744/statue-strikes-chord-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/516744/statue-strikes-chord-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:00:00 +0000 War Trash by Ha Jin Pantheon $195 Although a fictional memoir of a Chinese prisoner of war in a US-run camp, War Trash comes across as a historical record shot in documentary format, albeit with a few stilted recreations. The protagonist is Yu Yuan, who 'volunteers' to fight in the Korean war against US and South Korean forces. Fed lies about the enemy, the Chinese troops are devastated. Yu chooses imprisonment over martyrdom and is taken with thousands of detainees to a camp on an island... https://www.scmp.com/article/500677/war-trash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/500677/war-trash?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 May 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Drawing the curtain on the Asia-Africa summit in Bandung, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned participants that the occasion would be remembered not for what they said in the conference hall but for what they did afterwards. There could have been no more poignant reminder of the need for the leaders of 4.6 billion people, or 73 per cent of the world's population, to move beyond stirring rhetoric to constructive action. If that hope is realised, the Bandung movement might claim... https://www.scmp.com/article/498308/it-takes-more-talk-get-rich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/498308/it-takes-more-talk-get-rich?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 In New York, there stands a palatial building where it is rumoured the corridors are paved with gold and the bathroom fittings are jewel-encrusted. But this is not another luxury Manhattan apartment complex; rather, it is the world's least exclusive membership club. Far and wide, it is known as the United Nations. Anyone, it seems, can join and get to use its gym, jacuzzi and swimming pool. They apparently do a very good mutton curry on Thursdays, too. I have it on very good authority that all... https://www.scmp.com/article/471688/my-vision-new-world-order?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/471688/my-vision-new-world-order?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Sep 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Declassified documents reinforce Beijing's position on plot The central government has declassified a second batch of diplomatic papers, including documents that, news reports said, reinforce the mainland's position that Taiwan masterminded a foiled plot to assassinate premier Zhou Enlai. The papers include about 80 documents on the assassination attempt. The decision to release the documents that draw attention to the plot appears meant to fuel the sentiment that hostile forces in Taiwan and... https://www.scmp.com/article/463744/released-papers-support-claim-taiwan-tried-kill-zhou-enlai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/463744/released-papers-support-claim-taiwan-tried-kill-zhou-enlai?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jul 2004 16:00:00 +0000 The core thinking behind much of Beijing's modern diplomacy is to be revisited The doctrine that has guided China's diplomacy for half a century - the 'five principles of peaceful coexistence' - are up for retouching. Former world leaders will re-examine the principles at a seminar in the capital on Monday and Tuesday. Organised by the quasi-official Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, the seminar will mark the 50th anniversary of the joint declaration on the principles, signed by... https://www.scmp.com/article/459174/anti-colonial-doctrine-review?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/459174/anti-colonial-doctrine-review?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:00:00 +0000 There are historians who believe that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war was inevitable, with or without Ronald Reagan. The former United States president's claim to greatness then was his willingness to seize the opportunity when it came along, despite his well-known antipathy towards what he called the Evil Empire. When the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev came into office during Reagan's second term, the dyed-in-the-wool anti-communist chose to negotiate, setting in... https://www.scmp.com/article/458488/reagans-greatness-shines-through-flaws?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/458488/reagans-greatness-shines-through-flaws?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jun 2004 16:00:00 +0000