Asia (Continuación)

MundoAsia,

La rupia india se ha debilitado rápidamente en los últimos meses, el tipo de cambio respecto del dólar cayó un 11 % y con ello se acercó a las 60 rupias a principios de mayo. La caída de la rupia, en tanto símbolo de la fortaleza económica de la India, ha provocado más lamentos y angustia de lo habitual en el país y el extranjero.

Efectivamente, hay motivos por los que preocuparse, pero no porque el valor de la rupia haya caído. De hecho, la caída se preveía desde hacía mucho tiempo y la reciente incertidumbre en el mercado constituyó meramente una llamada de aviso.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia, ,

One strong signal that the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress sent to the international community in November 2012 was that China had included becoming a sea power in its national strategy for the coming decade.

What followed were the vigorous maritime institutional reforms announced during the annual National People’s Congress meeting in March 2013, which marked the actual once-in-a-decade leadership transition. China established a National Maritime Committee and combined a series of fragmental governmental sectors into the highly integrated and greatly enlarged National Maritime Bureau under the direct supervision of the Ministry of National Territory and Resources. This was a major step to strengthen the governance and management on ocean and maritime affairs, both civil and military.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Hong Kong, so often trapped under the shadow of a rising China, was suddenly thrown into the spotlight when Edward J. Snowden sought refuge from the U.S. government in our city. The speculation over the 30-year-old whistleblower’s fate, and Beijing’s role in the matter, stirred curiosity over how this territory of seven million has fared in the 16 years since it was returned to China by Britain.

Curious outsiders will have their answer on Monday. While the city’s pro-Beijing elite are celebrating the anniversary of the handover, thousands of people will take to the streets to protest their frustrations with the government, and its eroding autonomy from the mainland.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Todo el mundo habla del desaceleramiento económico chino. El año pasado, el crecimiento del PBI chino llegó a su valor mínimo en los últimos 13 años y no hay repuntes a la vista. Pero, como parece reconocerlo el primer ministro Li Keqiang, esta tendencia en realidad podría ser beneficiosa para impulsar las reformas estructurales que China necesita para alcanzar su meta de largo plazo de un crecimiento equilibrado y estable del PBI.

Las evaluaciones recientes brindan un panorama deprimente para la segunda mayor economía del mundo. En su último informe de Perspectivas económicas mundiales, el Banco Mundial redujo la tasa de crecimiento económico pronosticada para China, del 8,4 % al 7,7 %.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

When I was a kid, shark fin soup was de rigueur at wedding banquets. Somebody got married, and slurp — there we were, eating the stringy soup at an elaborate 10-course affair in a private party room in Chinatown. It was pleasing, but in the salty, gelatin-thickened way of Thanksgiving gravy. Shark fin itself is virtually tasteless — the soup’s flavor relies heavily on chicken stock, ham and a generous pour of Chinese red vinegar. We ate it because everyone else did, and everyone else ate it for the same reason.

In China, shark fin soup has been a staple banquet dish of the aristocracy since the Ming dynasty.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Before my family was expelled from Bhutan, in 1992, I lived with my parents and seven siblings in the south of the country. This region is the most fertile part of that tiny kingdom perched between Tibet and India, a tapestry of mountains, plains and alpine meadows. Our house sat in a small village, on terraced land flourishing with maize, millet and buckwheat, a cardamom garden, beehives and enough pasture for cows, oxen, sheep and buffaloes. That was the only home we had known.

After tightening its citizenship laws in the mid-1980s, Bhutan conducted a special census in the south and then proceeded to cast out nearly 100,000 people — about one-sixth of its population, nearly all of them of Nepalese origin, including my family.…  Seguir leyendo »

India Sees Rupee Signs as Myanmar Opens

MundoAsia,

Earlier this month, Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, hosted the World Economic Forum. The event confirmed the unexpectedly swift reassimiliation into the global community of a country that, until five years ago, had remained walled off by the military junta in power since 1962. Now that the regime is at long last liberalizing, and inviting foreign investment to change the landscape of one the poorest regions in Southeast Asia, Myanmar could make enormous strides by taking advantage of its geographical location, with India to the east and China to the west.

Crucially for India, Myanmar's new openness to the world would mean a release not just of that country's dormant energies -- and a spike in India-Myanmar trade -- but also a new lease of life for India's desperately poor northeastern flank.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, , , , ,

The month-long sojourn of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Chinese soil ended with his departure for Moscow and other parts after Hong Kong’s refusal to issue a warrant for his arrest despite an American request.

From China’s standpoint, this is the best resolution possible. It has been the main beneficiary of the whistleblower’s accusations against the American government, and it will now be spared a prolonged battle in the Hong Kong courts over whether Snowden should be extradited.

Snowden turned up in the former British colony at roughly the same time as a summit meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California, at which time the American leader berated his Chinese counterpart for alleged involvement in large-scale cyber espionage against the United States

Snowden’s release of information about massive U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Le Timor-Oriental a depuis une année (le 20 mai dernier) retrouvé sa pleine souveraineté et son indépendance, perdues dès le début du XVIe siècle. Si cet Etat est certes le premier à voir le jour au XXIe siècle, son processus d’autodétermination reste cependant un des plus bouleversés de l’histoire.

Accosté par les Portugais en 1512, ce territoire se situe aux confins des îles de la Sonde, dans le Sud-Est asiatique. Il se retrouve très rapidement au centre de plusieurs appétits: celui des Portugais, qui découvrent une terre riche en ressources comme le bois de santal et imaginent un lieu possible de bannissement; et celui des voisins néerlandais, avec leurs célèbres Indes néerlandaises orientales.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaMundoOriente Próximo,

Hamid Karzai’s derailment of the planned U.S. peace talks with the Taliban may have been a disappointment to Washington’s hopes of ending its longest war — but it disappointed Beijing, too. China welcomed the breakthrough in the Qatar process, and sees a political settlement in Afghanistan as increasingly important for its economic and security interests in the region. As a result, China’s support for reconciliation between Kabul and the Taliban has become a fixture of its burgeoning diplomatic activity on Afghanistan’s post-2014 future.

Over the last year, China has been expanding its direct contacts with the Taliban and sounding them out on security issues that range from separatist groups in the Chinese region of Xinjiang to the protection of Chinese resource investments, according to interviews with officials and experts in Beijing, Washington, Kabul, Islamabad and Peshawar.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia  

Crece el interés por Birmania. El mes pasado, Thein Sein se convirtió en el primer presidente de Birmania que visitaba la Casa Blanca en un periodo de casi 50 años y varios líderes, del primer ministro británico, David Cameron, al de India, Manmohan Singh o de Japón, Shinzo Abe, han visitado Rangún.

De hecho, después de años de ausencia, los gobiernos extranjeros se apresuran a abrir sus embajadas en el país. Además, organizaciones multilaterales y exministros de todo el mundo se unen para ayudar a las autoridades a impulsar sus ambiciosos programas, desde ampliar el suministro de electricidad a potenciar sus propias aptitudes y funciones de gobierno.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

Modern India is, in many ways, a success. Its claim to be the world’s largest democracy is not hollow. Its media is vibrant and free; Indians buy more newspapers every day than any other nation. Since independence in 1947, life expectancy at birth has more than doubled, to 66 years from 32, and per-capita income (adjusted for inflation) has grown fivefold. In recent decades, reforms pushed up the country’s once sluggish growth rate to around 8 percent per year, before it fell back a couple of percentage points over the last two years. For years, India’s economic growth rate ranked second among the world’s large economies, after China, which it has consistently trailed by at least one percentage point.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaEuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

La Abenomics,la estrategia del primer ministro Shinzo Abe para despertar el “espíritu animal” atrapado dentro de la economía japonesa, está acelerándose. Los estímulos fiscales y la flexibilización monetaria continúan, y avanza la tarea de desplegar una “estrategia de crecimiento” que promueva las reformas estructurales y reguladoras. Los beneficios empresariales y el gasto de consumo están aumentando, y, a pesar de una corrección reciente, la Bolsa está registrando enormes ganancias.

No es extraño que Abe y su Partido Liberal Demócrata sean populares, y tanto los líderes empresariales como los consumidores japoneses parecen pensar que la economía del país está ya encaminada en la buena dirección.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

China ha superado este año a la economía europea. China superará a Estados Unidos en el 2016 (según el FMI y otros organismos). China superó a la economía estadounidense en el 2010, según algunos investigadores. Rusia se está convirtiendo en socio menor de China y está perdiendo Siberia frente a su vecino oriental.

Son temas de titulares y conversaciones estos días en Washington. Olvidemos a Siria y centrémonos en China, dice Edward N. Luttwak, autor de un nuevo libro sobre el futuro de China. Luttwak sostiene que el rápido acceso a la prosperidad es un modo muy común de que los países pierdan el juicio y compara a la China contemporánea con Alemania en los años anteriores a la Primera Guerra Mundial.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Cruise missiles that are difficult to detect, increasingly fast and capable of carrying nuclear warheads are spreading, especially in Asia, complicating arms control and raising the risk of catastrophic conflict.

Until recently, most concerns have focused on the actual or potential spread of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles in China, North Korea, India and Pakistan — the four Asian states known to have atomic arms. Ballistic missiles, launched by rocket engines, follow an arc-like trajectory, attaining hypersonic speeds on the downward leg of their guided journey towards a target.

Until now and probably for some time yet, all long-range ballistic missiles, with atomic warheads small enough to fit on them, are deployed exclusively for strategic nuclear deterrence.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

During Yingluck Shinawatra’s official visit to Japan late last month, Thailand’s first female premier did not just exploit her charm to win over Japan, but also dared to talk openly about the most sensitive issue facing her country — the protracted political crisis that followed the 2006 military coup that had overthrown her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the most successful prime minister in Thai history.

Yingluck held a bilateral talk with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As expected, Yingluck, accompanied by a large entourage of Thai businessmen, sought deeper economic cooperation with Japan. On top of her agenda, Yingluck attempted hard to raise the confidence of Japanese investors to continue to use Thailand as a production base.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

When they met in California earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama discussed a long list of disputes from trade to climate change to cyber-hacking.

Both were anxious to get along and only small steps forward will directly result. The key deliverable for the first U.S.-China Summit, early in Obama’s second term and as Xi starts an expected decade in power, is rapport.

The unresolved question of their relations in the Asia-Pacific hovered in the background. Xi touched on this by saying “the vast Pacific Ocean has enough space” for both countries. Underlying this was Chinese resentment about the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

This is the second of a two-part series on dealing with North Korea’s nuclear provocations. (See first part)

Condemnations by the United Nations Security Council of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic programs have become so ritualized that they corrode the U.N.’s credibility as its demands are continually and serially defied.

Unilateral punitive measures are impractical because of China’s fault tolerance for Pyongyang. The path of still more punitive sanctions and isolation seems to lead nowhere.

The possible solutions would seem to be either a return of North Korea to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a nonnuclear-weapons state under full International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and inspections; or an acceptance of its nuclear weapons status subject to binding commitments to observe the same disciplines on export, transfer and disciplines as the other nuclear powers.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Casste is not a word that modernizing India likes to use. It has receded to the unfashionable background. Newspapers reserve their headlines for the newer metrics of social hierarchy: wealth and politics, and those powerful influencers of popular culture, actors and cricket stars.

There are two stories we tell ourselves in urban India. One is about how education transforms lives. It is the golden key to the future, allowing people to rise above the circumstances of their birth and background. And sometimes, it does. In my own neighborhood, a few sons and daughters of cooks and gardeners are earning their engineering and business degrees, and sweeping their families into the middle class.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia

In May 1998 President Suharto resigned, ending three decades in power in Indonesia and what was known as the New Order. As an army general, he had intervened against a coup attempt in 1965 that ended with the sidelining of President Sukarno and months of massacres all over the archipelago as Suharto consolidated his grip.

More than half a million were killed, bludgeoned with hoes and slashed with sickles; rivers and beaches were thick with dumped bodies and blood, even in idyllic Bali. Islamic youth groups, with military support, targeted alleged communists and ethnic Chinese. It was a time of reprisals and score-settling, but during the Suharto era this bloodletting, and the imprisonment of a million suspected communists, were taboo subjects.…  Seguir leyendo »