Asia Politics

Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World tells the complete story of how a city once famed for protests so peaceful that toddlers joined grandparents became a place where police have fired tear gas, rubber bullets and even live ammunition at their neighbors, while pro-government hooligans attack demonstrators....

Throughout the world, oppressive regimes are being uprooted and replaced by budding democracies, but one exception remains: The People's Republic of North Korea. The Kim family has clung to power for three generations by silencing dissidents, ruling with an iron fist, and holding its neighbors hostage with threats of war. Under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, North Korea has come closer than ever to creating a viable nuclear arsenal, but widespread famine and growing resistance are weakening his regime's stability.

The murder of a young Tibetan nun at the hands of Chinese border guards at the rooftop of the world offers a unique parable for the tale of modern Tibet. Chinese police are instructed to take any measures necessary to protect the border of Tibet. When a group of climbers witness the murder of a young Tibetan nun who is fleeing to India, two men have a choice: turn a blind eye and preserve their climbing careers or alert the world to the grand scale of human injustice played out daily in Tibet.

A major historical account of the Korean War, its origins, and its evolving impact on the world. Sixty years after North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea, the Korean War has not yet ended. Sheila Miyoshi Jager presents the first comprehensive history of this misunderstood war, one that risks involving the world’s superpowers - again. Her sweeping narrative ranges from the middle of the Second World War - when Korean independence was fiercely debated between Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill - to the present day.

Throughout the post-Mao reform era, China has championed the principle of sovereign state control, which holds that states should not intervene in the affairs of other states. Yet, as Tim Nicholas Rühlig argues in China's Foreign Policy Contradictions, in recent years they have not actually acted this way. Chinese foreign policy actions fail to match up with official rhetoric, and these inconsistencies - in combination with China's growing power - will have dramatic effects on the future shape of international order.

Infolge einer Reihe von Anschlägen in Xinjiang 2014 errichtete die chinesische Regierung in den letzten Jahren dort ein riesiges Netz von Straflagern für ethnische Minderheiten, vorwiegend muslimische Uiguren und Kasachen. Beschönigend nennt Peking diese - trotz erdrückender Beweislage - weiterhin "Berufsbildungslager", in denen sich alle "Schüler freiwillig" aufhielten. Im Jahr 2017 gerät die kasachische Staatsbeamtin und Direktorin mehrerer Vorschulen Sayragul Sauytbay selbst in die Mühlen des chinesischen Unterdrückungsapparates.

George Macartney's disastrous 1793 mission to China plays a central role in the prevailing narrative of modern Sino-European relations. Summarily dismissed by the Qing court, Macartney failed in nearly all of his objectives, perhaps setting the stage for the Opium Wars of the 19th century and the mistrust that still marks the relationship today. The Last Embassy tells the story of the Dutch mission of 1795, bringing to light a dramatic but little-known episode that transforms our understanding of the history of China and the West.

Sichere Dir noch heute dieses Hörbuch und erfahre, wie Du Dein Leben mit den Weisheiten der östlichen Philosophie bereichern kannst.

Is India ready to emerge as a world leader? Our times are characterized not by estranged superpowers building formidable arsenals but by engaged societies building a robust global economy. Emerging countries are redefining the geo-economic (and geopolitical) dynamic. The twenty-first century will be led, says Raghav Bahl, by a handful of Super Economies - large, prosperous countries with a high growth rate, ranking among the world’s top trading partners, commanding 15 to 20 percent of global GDP, having nuclear arms but using economic leadership to effect significant change.

Learn about how the dichotomous twins of idealism and pragmatism, of freedom and power, and of hope and fear are pitched against each other, wrestling for the future of Cambodia. This is Cambodia through the lens of human stories in what journalists and politicians have called 'gripping', 'a tour de force' and 'a must read'.

Mit der Operation Enduring Freedom begann am 7. Oktober 2001 der "Krieg gegen den Terror" in Afghanistan, der bis heute zum längsten Krieg der USA und ihrer Verbündeten geworden ist, mit Tausenden Toten und Verletzen, auch unter den deutschen Soldaten. Dieser neokoloniale "Kreuzzug" hat Wunden hinterlassen, die womöglich niemals heilen werden. Emran Feroz beschreibt zum 20. Jahrestag diesen Krieg nun erstmals aus afghanischer Perspektive. Er hat mit vielen Menschen vor Ort gesprochen: von Hamid Karzai über Taliban-Offizielle bis zu betroffenen Bürgern, die vor allem unter diesem Krieg gelitten haben.

Chinas Aufstieg fasziniert die Welt - und lehrt sie das Fürchten. Unter Parteichef Xi Jinping erlebt das Land einen Rückfall in die Diktatur. Gleichzeitig dehnt es seinen globalen Einfluss immer weiter aus. Nicht nur in Amerika, auch in Europa wächst das Unbehagen an der neuen Weltmacht und an ihren Methoden. Droht ein neuer kalter Krieg oder sogar ein chinesischer Triumph über den Westen? ZEIT-Korrespondent Matthias Naß gibt einen spannenden Einblick in das Land, das sich anschickt, zur Führungsmacht des 21. Jahrhunderts zu werden.

Pro Jahr mehr als 1.500 Kilometer neue Gleise für Hochgeschwindigkeitszüge, über ein Dutzend neue Wolkenkratzer allein in Shenzhen und mindestens 1,38 Millionen neue Patente: Chinas Diktatur treibt eine hocheffiziente Wirtschaft an. Sie baut einen digitalen Überwachungsapparat auf, wie ihn die Welt noch nicht gesehen hat, und dehnt im Stil einer neuen Kolonialmacht ihren Einfluss aus - ob in Afrika, bei der neuen Seidenstraße oder durch Investitionen in Griechenland oder Portugal, für die im Gegenzug Linientreue bei EU-Resolutionen gezeigt werden muss.

Historian and geopolitical expert Michael Auslin argues that far from being a cohesive powerhouse, Asia is a fractured region threatened by stagnation and instability. Here he provides a comprehensive account of the economic, military, political, and demographic risks that bedevil half of our world, arguing that Asia, working with the United States, has a unique opportunity to avert catastrophe - but only if it acts boldly.

Throughout the late 1970s and early '80s, dozens of Japanese citizens were abducted from coastal Japanese towns by North Korean commandos. In what proved to be part of a global project, North Korea attempted to reeducate the abductees and train them to spy on the state's behalf. When the project faltered, the abductees were hidden in a series of guarded communities known as "Invitation-Only Zones" - the fiction being that these were exclusive enclaves, not prisons.

In this book, former North Korea lead foreign service officer at the US embassy in Seoul, Patrick McEachern, unpacks the contentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an approachable question-and-answer format. Why have the two Koreas developed politically and economically in such radically different ways? What are the origins of a divided Korean Peninsula? Who rules the two Koreas? How have three generations of the authoritarian Kim dictatorship shaped North Korea?

The downfall of Bo Xilai in China was more than a darkly thrilling mystery. It revealed a cataclysmic internal power struggle between Communist Party factions, one that reached all the way to China’s new president Xi Jinping. The scandalous story of the corruption of the Bo Xilai family - the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo’s secret lovers; the secret maneuverings of Bo’s supporters; the hasty trial and sentencing of Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife - was just the first rumble of a seismic power struggle that continues to rock the very foundation of China’s all-powerful Communist Party.

Most global citizens are well aware of the explosive growth of the Chinese economy. Indeed, China has famously become the "workshop of the world." Yet, while China watchers have shed much light on the country's internal dynamics - China's politics, its vast social changes, and its economic development - few have focused on how this increasingly powerful nation has become more active and assertive throughout the world.

In An Enemy We Created, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn debunk this myth and reveal the much more complex reality that lies beneath it. Drawing upon their unprecedented fieldwork in Afghanistan, as well as their Arabic, Dari, and Pashtu skills, the authors show that the West's present entanglement in Afghanistan is predicated on the false assumption that defeating the Taliban will forestall further terrorist attacks worldwide.

Using exclusive interviews with Suu Kyi since her release from 15 years of house arrest, as well as recently disclosed diplomatic cables, Pederson uncovers new facets to Suu Kyi's extraordinary story. The Burma Spring also reveals the extraordinary steps taken by First Lady Laura Bush to help Suu Kyi, as well as how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton injected new momentum into Burma's democratic rebirth.