I have a short piece on the prospects for joint US-Japanese air patrols in the South China Sea in the context of the new US-Japan defense guidelines at the new AT. Go! Read it! Thank you. I draw the conclusion that the main practical application of joint patrols is to provide backup to the Philippines... Read More

The People’s Republic of China decided to defy the “pivot to Asia” by parking its HYSY 981 drilling platform—protected by a flotilla of various vessels perhaps not including PLAN ships-- in waters that Vietnam considers part of its EEZ. Vietnam has been displeased, to put it mildly.  It has reached out to the Philippines, indicating... Read More

[This piece may be reposted if Asia Times Online is credited and a link provided.] In other words, it’s time for the United States to engage in a full-throated celebration of the pivot to Asia with what I think is going to be President Obama’s America F*ck Yeah tour of Asian democracies in April 2014.... Read More

John Kerry recently concluded a friendly visit to Beijing, with both sides chatting about matters of mutual concern in a way that implied these two great powers have areas of shared concern and interest. Some observers might fear that peace might break out. Don’t worry. My personal opinion is that a dwindling group of PRC... Read More

And is Joe Biden the Designated Whipping Boy? There has always been an implicit contradiction between Shinzo Abe's declared desire to "bring Japan back" and the US wish to lead "Free Asia". The divergence of aims has been obscured by the eagerness of the US defense establishment to encourage Japan's increasing heft as a "security"... Read More

Update: Japan announced its acceptance of the South Korean ADIZ. The Japanese government statement involved some complicated parsing to reconcile its acceptance of the ROK zone with its rejection of the PRC zone. Japan stated that the ROK zone does not impinge on airspace over territories effectively controlled by Japan, and Japan does not assert... Read More

A commenter took issue with this piece in its original form.  I thought his comments about the tone were well-taken, and I've revised the text accordingly.  As an admonition to myself, the chinahand Twitter feed will be updated to "Less heat more light".  Also, he got me to thinking about the ADIZ friction we can... Read More

I am unwilling to join the rest of China pundits on the fainting couch, overcome with dismay and disapproval at the PRC’s unilateral declaration of an ADIZ. All the big kids have an ADIZ. The PRC has an ADIZ. I don’t think it’s going anywhere and we should get used to it. To me, the... Read More

That guidance (to paraphrase Hearst’s famous admonition to Frederic Remington on the occasion of the Spanish-American War, “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war,”) pretty much sums up the interaction of the government of Japan and the Western media on the matter of the Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone or ADIZ. I’m not going... Read More