Yakuza Smugglers, Myanmar, and Manhattan

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/09/takeshi-ebisawa-yakuza-leader-nuclear-materials-myanmar

This story is fascinating on several levels and yet there's something rotten about it. Even after reading the 43 page indictment, it doesn't add up.

Washington's Latest Moves Against Beijing

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/21/quad-leaders-meet-in-bidens-hometown-amid-growing-china-competition

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-testing-us-all-joe-biden-caught-on-mic-telling-quad-leaders-101726970216499.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/biden-proposes-banning-chinese-vehicles-us-roads-with-software-crackdown-2024-09-23/

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/09/economist-calls-trumps-threat-to-tariff-countries-that-shun-the-dollar-a-lose-lose.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-keeps-missile-system-philippines-china-tensions-rise-tests-wartime-deployment-2024-09-19/

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3279516/us-typhon-missile-system-philippines-has-china-facing-more-tense-security-situation

At the end of September, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or QUAD met in Delaware. This is the most comprehensive of the new network of alliances created by Washington to combat China. The Quad is comprised of India, Japan, Australia, and the United States. This is in addition to AUKUS which has a more robust security element. What's important about the Quad is that it incorporates India and as such is critical to the US 'Indo-Pacific' framing of geo-politics and strategy vis-à-vis Beijing. AUKUS has more teeth but the Quad has the potential to be more important.

Spinning Myanmar

BBC's Newshour recently ran a story on Myanmar and the forgotten internal war that country faces, a conflict exacerbated by the February 2021 coup and takeover by the military. Two years later, the news outlet wanted to revisit the story – or so it seemed.

ASEAN and the Russian Navy

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/12/01/russia-asean-naval-drills/

The move by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to hold joint naval drills with Russia is a slap in the face to China but on a far greater level to the United States which has earnestly sought to court these nations since the Obama era. It sends a clear signal that the ASEAN members are not willing to simply bow to the US, nor are they willing to trust Washington to any quantifiable degree. They're going to hedge their bets and keep all options open – which for the US represents a diplomatic defeat.

Asia is Marching Toward War

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2021/05/20/japan-must-speed-up-defense-says-minister/

Though it is often presented as a preventative measure, a type of peace through strength, the truth is militarism always results in conflict. And Japan has been rattling the sabre for some time. The Japanese Right is eager to re-arm and re-assert its traditional role in the Asian theatre. They view Japan as a great power on par with Western nations and now 75 years after its defeat in WWII – it's time for Japan to re-assume its place.

The Myanmar Coup and China

There have been repeated hints made in Western media that Beijing is somehow behind the coup in Myanmar (Burma). While the ruling party (CCP) of China is undoubtedly an evil organisation, I was immediately sceptical of the claims. Once again, just because Xi Jinping is an evil persecutor of the Church does not mean that we as Christians need to hop on to the Western propaganda bandwagon. We need to hold the truth and remember that just because the Chinese government is evil – it does not follow that Western powers like the US or UK are somehow 'good'.

Myanmar Woes

http://asianews.it/news-en/Pro-China-rebels-shut-down-Baptist-churches,-arrest-Baptist-pastors-and-expel-Catholic-nuns-45072.html

It is unclear as to whether the anti-Christian policies of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) are emulations of Chinese policy or are in fact being encouraged by Beijing.

Myanmar or Burma has been embroiled in a series of overlapping civil wars since its independence in 1948 and many outsiders have played a part. The US has officially been uninvolved since they airlifted Kuomintang (KMT) remnants out of the country in 1953 but only the willingly blind would believe such a story. The truth is Washington has been deeply involved in the Karen struggle as well as some of the other 'internal conflicts' which continue to plague the Southeast Asian nation.

The Taliban Enigma: Afghanistan and Central Asia in 2018 (Part 2)

It doesn't require a great deal of reflection to understand that an ISIS presence in Afghanistan would allow Washington to effectively 're-boot' the war effort, recast it and use the subsequent war and 'victory' for leverage.

At the end of the day, most of the regional players want ISIS defeated, the Taliban pacified and the US out of the region before a new Central Asian War is fomented. The US strategy has largely failed. Too many years have gone by and the situation on the ground has changed. There are more players and different stakes.

Humanitarian Politics and Myanmar

Beware the so-called humanitarians arguing for war.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/10/why-nato-must-defend-womens-rights

Humanitarian politics has become a basis for war in the post Cold War era. This was a growing theme during the 1990's as the US intervened in places like Somalia and NATO began to rapidly expand in Europe. Even the disastrous genocide in Rwanda was spun as a call to arms for future interventions.

Suu Kyi: An Inspirational Let-Down

Aung San Suu Kyi inspired a generation of human rights activists through her long struggle with the ruling junta of Myanmar/Burma. Suffering years of house arrest, all but abandoning her family for the sake of the cause, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991 and seemed in recent years to be finally vindicated. Freed from arrest she now sits in a position of political power.