Asia Politics

A decade ago, Burma was full of light and hope. Today, it has descended into darkness and despair. The once promising political and opening up of the country has been set back, possibly for a long time. How did this happen? Why? Many outside observers are surprised by the developments, but it was predictable. For those watching Burma the February 2021 coup was in the making for some time. Its seeds were planted in the constitution, which created false expectations on both the military and the civilian parties that both sides are going to emerge as long-term winners.

The United States needs to understand each of the many Asian states in detail: while there are similarities, they all have situations that are difficult to compare. The U.S., Japan, and Asia in International Politics focuses on U.S. interests in Asia in its broadest contours - from Japan, China, and the Koreas in the east; a discussion of India in the south; and also to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the west. This book also treats Russia as an Asia-Pacific power.

Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark are internationally renowned investigative journalists. In Deception, they reveal the decades-long story of Pakistan's nuclear program - and how the United States has been complicit in the spread of nuclear arms. Based on hundreds of interviews from around the world, this work will force Americans to reexamine national priorities.

In 2017, the 29th Sultan of Brunei, Hassanl Bolkiah, celebrated his Golden Jubilee, marking his 50th year in power. Bolkiah negotiated Brunei's independence from the British Empire in 1978, a freedom which they achieved in 1984. The first sultan to also serve as Prime Minister, Bolkiah has ruled over this prosperous nation ever since. He is officially the world's wealthiest monarch thanks to his country's oil and gas reserves. Whether you know him for his extravagant lifestyle or his political work establishing Shari'ah Law, the Sultan of Brunei is a powerful leader.

On the eve of a landmark general election, Ruchir Sharma offers an unrivaled portrait of how India and its democracy work, drawn from his two decades on the road chasing election campaigns across every major state, travelling the equivalent of a lap around the earth. Democracy on the Road takes listeners on a rollicking ride with Ruchir and his merry band of fellow writers as they talk to farmers, shopkeepers, and CEOs from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, and interview leaders from Narendra Modi to Rahul Gandhi.

The sheer volume of commentaries on the Mahabharata is awe-inspiring. So, what is it in the Mahabharata that gives it its timeless magic? Is it the mythical characters with which it is replete that makes the epic so enchanting? Or is it the great wealth of philosophical and metaphysical ideas in it that dazzles its audiences? Or could it be a combination of all these that makes it ever-fascinating to scholars and audiences around the world? And, most of all, what accounts for its incredible effect on the subconscious of millions of Indians through several generations?

After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.

While Pang-Mei Natasha Chang was a Chinese Studies major at Harvard University, she stumbled across the name of her 83-year-old great aunt Chang Yu-i in a history book. Over the next several years, Pang-Mei spent long afternoons drawing forth her aunt's story. Born in Shanghai to a well-to-do family, Chang Yu-i lived a life of defiance, continually breaking class and culture barriers.

The Cambodian genocide was the methodical abuse and death of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who pushed Cambodia toward being an entirely self-dependent agrarian socialist state. Between 1975 and 1979, 1.5 to two million people were murdered, representing about a quarter of Cambodia's population in 1975. Through a high number of propaganda resources and sheer force, the coup forced millions of people from the cities to farmlands, leaving them there to die.

Die Weltwirtschaft steht vor einer Zeitenwende: Asien ist dabei, endgültig die Vorherrschaft im globalen Wettbewerb zu übernehmen. Der Kontinent, auf dem über die Hälfte aller Menschen lebt, setzt sich als Technologiechampion an die Spitze - flankiert von den neuen Seidenstraßen, einem der ehrgeizigsten Infrastrukturprogramme in der Geschichte der Menschheit.

Was passiert wirklich in China? – China-Korrespondentin Lea Sahay bietet in diesem Hörbuch exklusive Einblicke in Politik, Wirtschaft und den chinesischen Traum. Lange schien Pekings neo-kommunistische Politik aufzugehen. Die Verbindung von Wachstum, Nationalismus und sozialer Kontrolle sah aus wie eine erfolgreiche Alternative zu westlicher Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft. Doch heute zeigt die Fassade der zweitgrößten Wirtschaftsmacht der Welt Risse: Der Tech-Boom ist vorbei, die Immobilienblase geplatzt und das Gesundheitssystem kollabiert.

When the bloody Chinese Civil War concluded in 1949, two Chinas were born. Mao’s Communists won and took China’s mainland; Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan island. Since then, China and Taiwan have drifted into being separate political and cultural entities. Taiwan is now a flourishing democracy and an economic success story: just one of its companies produces over 90 per cent of the semiconductors that power the world’s economy. It is a free and vibrant society.

In April 2014 Mark Horrell went on a mountaineering expedition to Nepal, hoping to climb Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world, which shares a base camp and climbing route with Mount Everest. But when a devastating avalanche swept across the Khumbu Icefall, he got more than he bargained for. Suddenly he found himself witnessing the greatest natural disaster Everest had ever seen.

No one can understand modern China—including its response to the pandemic—without understanding who actually lives there, and the ways that the Chinese State tries to control its people. Let Only Red Flowers Bloom collects the stories of more than two dozen people who together represent a more holistic picture of Chinese identity.

Dos costumes ancestrais às violentas reviravoltas do comunismo, a China passou, em algumas décadas, por uma das mais radicais e amplas transformações já vistas na história da humanidade. Mergulhando nas memórias familiares de três gerações de mulheres, Cisnes selvagens é o relato verdadeiro, com todos os acentos do drama épico, de uma família que tenta preservar a própria humanidade em meio à vertigem e ao horror da trajetória da China neste século.

Traveling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum, Siddhartha Deb reveals a country in which forces old and new have aligned to endanger democracy. The result is an absorbing—and disturbing—portrait. India has become a religious fundamentalist dystopia, one depicted here with a novelist's precise language and eye for detail.

The astonishing story of the billionaire businessman Jimmy Lai, who became one of Hong Kong’s leading activists for democracy and is China’s most famous political prisoner.

In Wuhan: How the COVID-19 Outbreak in China Spiraled Out of Control, Dali L. Yang scrutinizes China's emergency response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, delving into the government's handling of epidemic information and the decisions that influenced the scale and scope of the outbreak. Yang's research reveals that China's health experts had an excellent head start when they implemented a health emergency action program to respond to the outbreak at the end of December 2019.

Many studies of China's relations with and influence on Southeast Asia tend to focus on how Beijing has used its power asymmetry to achieve regional influence. Yet, scholars and pundits often fail to appreciate the complexity of the contemporary Chinese state and society, and just how fragmented, decentralized, and internationalized China is today. In The Ripple Effect, Enze Han argues that a focus on the Chinese state alone is not sufficient for a comprehensive understanding of China's influence in Southeast Asia. Instead, we must look beyond the Chinese state, to non-state actors from China.

Este libro ofrece una guía completa de los acontecimientos que dan forma a la mitología india. Desde la creación del universo hasta guerras celestiales y la reencarnación, la mitología de la India aborda enigmáticos cuentos ancestrales, creación y espiritualidad. La mitología india no es una simple cuestión del pasado. Los festivales contemporáneos, celebraciones, cultos, música, bailes, poesía, películas y televisión pueden representar o incluir aspectos de la mitología india. También es un tema de interés para aquellos que la estudian o la practican.