Notes from the front of 12-03-2018
*** Trump’s protectionism: Aiming at China, killing jobs
*** Trump’s concedes to talk directly with North Korea
Asia
Winter Olympics: North Korea wins gold
North Korea may not have won any Olympic medals in Pyeongchang, but it took gold for diplomacy.
The significance of the Tet Offensive
On 31 January 1968 news broke of a huge wave of attacks across South Vietnam on US and South Vietnamese positions by the Vietnamese national liberation forces, including an assault on the US embassy compound in the south’s capital Saigon.
Xi Jinping sets the tone for global fight against climate change
By Ruby Cooper
Xi Jinping’s speech to the 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party underlined China’s growing international leadership in the global battle to stop climate change. This is an important issue for humanity given the catastrophic consequences that will result if this challenge is not successfully tackled.
Japan: Abe’s landslide in seats based on no increase in votes
By Jude Woodward
Shinzo Abe and his right wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to an outright victory in Japan’s snap General Election at the weekend.
His LDP/Komeito Party ruling coalition won over two-thirds – 313 – of the seats in the lower house of the Japanese Parliament. Taken together with the coalition’s existing two-thirds majority in the upper house, the election delivered a ‘super-majority’ for Abe which potentially allows him to take such steps as changing the Japanese constitution without consulting the opposition parties.
US ‘regime change’ invasions are to blame for the crisis with North Korea
By Jude Woodward
Once again tensions between the US and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear programme have reached a dangerous boiling point, as North Korea carried out its largest-ever nuclear test in early September.