Richard Javad Heydarian

But the provoca­tive move will like­ly mark the open­ing sal­vo in a long strug­gle for the fu­ture of the is­land.

The suc­cess of Abe’s LDP in Sun­day’s elec­tion sig­nals the for­mer PM’s vi­sion for a proac­tive Japan may soon be re­alised.

Will Fer­di­nand “Bong­bong” Mar­cos Jr repli­cate his fa­ther’s dic­ta­to­r­i­al am­bi­tions?

Al­ready os­tracised in Eu­rope, a heav­i­ly sanc­tioned Rus­sia may also strug­gle to find much love in Asia.

For­mer dic­ta­tor Fer­di­nand Mar­cos’s son ‘Bong­bong’ is on course to be­come the pres­i­dent of the Philip­pines in May 2022.

West­ern hypocrisy in the Mid­dle East is al­low­ing Chi­na to false­ly present it­self as a de­fend­er of the Mus­lim world.

De­lays and con­cerns about the ef­fi­ca­cy and pol­i­tics of Chi­na’s vac­cine ship­ments plague its vac­cine dri­ve in the re­gion.

The suc­cess of Biden’s for­eign pol­i­cy will large­ly de­pend on how he han­dles the Chi­na chal­lenge.

With­out US mil­i­tary sup­port, the Philip­pines will face on its own ma­jor in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal se­cu­ri­ty threats.

The US pres­i­dent is an­gry that the World Bank is treat­ing Chi­na like a de­vel­op­ing na­tion but there is a deep­er prob­lem.