Taiwan has announced cuts in its defense budget, making it tougher to upgrade its aging fleet of F-16’s, writes the Asia Sentinel. But defense analyst Wendell Minnick says the budget cuts are unlikely to influence the island’s security, or even the quality of its F-16’s.Read More →

The story China’s economy is a bubble that is about to burst, exists as long as the country’s economy started to boom. Economic analyst Arthur Kroeber explains in NPR why we do not need to worry right now and why signs of bubbles are part of the game.Read More →

“At least when the Chinese say, ‘This is going to be an investment zone,’ they put in electricity and phone lines and sewers,” tells author Paul French the BBC about the failed North-Korean investment zone at the China border. The China model did not work in North-Korea.Read More →

The political trouble surrounding political big-shot Bo Xi-lai has still not been solved, tells political and financial analyst Victor Shih in Business Week. More than a week after he sent 100 police men to surround the US consulate in Chengdu to fetch Wang Lijun, Beijing still has to act.Read More →

Author Zhang Lijia reviews the novel Paying for It by Canadian comic artist Chester Brown on prostitution, but gets nicely sidetracked into her own upcoming novel on prostitution in China.Read More →