Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Comrades in arms
Paul Letters says China and Russias
decision to jointly commemorate the
end of the second world war must
be understood against the
background of their shared
experiences but only up to a point
the Soviet Union was a reluctant combatant. China had to wait until August 1945 for
the Soviets to declare war on Japan.
The Sino-Soviet friendship was far
from close by the wars end. At the 1945
Yalta Conference, Stalin asked for Franklin
Roosevelts blessing on independence for
Outer Mongolia in exchange for his assurance that the USSR would not support the
Communist Party in the Chinese civil conflict. Moscow doubted the communists
ability to win the civil war.
That they won it and still maintain
power has some bearing on the USSRs
former communist KGB chief Vladimir
Putin and his desire to stand alongside
China today. Back then, the reward to the
same communists who had fought alongside Americans and Britons in the AsiaPacific theatre was Western-led international excommunication.
So began a relationship admittedly at
times a squabbling sisters relationship
where China and Russia were bound
together by something greater than ideology: a common enemy. The West, long
Soviet Russias enemy, had declared itself
the enemy of the Peoples Republic of
China before the new communist state
could take its first breath.
This 70-year anniversary snuggle-up
overlooks much dirt from the war era.
Asean leaders wisdom can ensure peace Officials must dare to stand
and prosperity beyond the golden years up for Hong Kongs interests
Andrew Sheng says despite regional challenges, the future looks bright for the grouping
Travelling by
bus through
Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia,
I could feel
Aseans growth
I also brought along Robert
Kaplans 2014 book Asias
Cauldron, about how the South
China Sea could be the next flash
point of geopolitical conflict.
Born during the period of the
Vietnam war, the Asean
community realised that
geopolitical neutrality and
political stability are the anchors
for peace and prosperity. Unlike
the European Union, Asean is
not a political integration but an
economic zone focused on
regional peace. Its strengths are
its consensual nature of
agreement highly frustrating
for some and its ability to get
Hong Kong
appears to have
a government
with no control
over this
places destiny
Chinese of Hong Kong, who are
quite capable of administrating
their own affairs.
What happened to that faith?
The bald facts are that is has
largely been eroded by the very
people who were handpicked in
Beijing to lead the new special
administrative region.
Instead of working
assiduously to build Hong
Kongs own institutions and
preserve its distinctive identity,
they have opted for a reflex
desire to refer all big decisions
up north and have chosen to tell
the leaders in Beijing only what
they want to hear. A true leader