The situation on the Korean Peninsula is crucial to maintaining peace in Northeast Asia. It plays an important role in the security and economic development of the Asia-Pacific region, and has a great impact on overall global stability. Hence, the peninsula has a special place in Sino-U.S. ties. Though the Cold War ended two decades ago, people on the Korean Peninsula are still living in its shado

Behold the silence of the lambs. Naturally, I’m talking about the Democrats.One of their own House members has been plugged in the head by a nut job armed with a Glock and a high-capacity magazine, yet even now they can’t muster the courage to talk about sensible gun curbs. That issue is off the national agenda because Democrats have been rendered mute by their terror of the gun lobby.The timidity

As expected, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao addressed two issues concerning North Korea during their summit on Wednesday ― its hostility against South Korea and its nuclear weapons program. They made agreements in broad terms. But their post-summit remarks provided no indication that they agreed to take any concrete steps with regard to the two issues.At a joint

South Korea has recently started negotiations with the United States on extending the range of its ballistic missiles beyond the permitted 300 kilometers. The talks, though belated, should be welcomed. Still better, the United States is reportedly more receptive to South Korean demands than in the past.South Korea’s efforts to develop a new generation of ballistic missiles as a deterrent against N

Once you get a look at the evil smirk captured by the mug shot of Jared Lee Loughner, it’s hard to believe that mere heated political rhetoric was the decisive factor in his allegedly pulling the trigger over and over and over again.But that doesn’t mean there’s no link between politics and violence, or even, to some degree, mental illness.A psychologist will tell you that plenty of factors may pu

After years of warning that an Iranian atomic bomb is right around the corner, Israeli officials now say Iran is at least four years away from deploying a nuclear weapon, maybe more. And Obama administration officials agree, although they shy away from endorsing a specific time frame. “We’ve gained some breathing space,” a senior U.S. official told me last week. “The good news is that we have slow

As far as stealth fighters are concerned, the Chinese prototype J-20 is perhaps too eye-attracting. On Dec. 22, 2010, photos of a taxiing test at the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute of the fifth-generation twin-engine fighter aircraft emerged on the Internet and triggered a firestorm in the international media. On Jan. 11, hours before U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates met with Chinese Preside

Last year saw good momentum in China’s strengthening ties with other Asian countries, as indicated by the frequent high-level exchanges and the expansion of two-way economic and trade links. The high-level exchanges greatly boosted bilateral political trust, while China remained the largest export market for Asian countries ― its imports from the rest of the region totaling $446.5 billion, up 41.1

President Hu Jintao’s state visit to the United States starting from Jan. 18 comes 14 months after President Barack Obama’s November 2009 visit to China. The intervening period has seen many problems in U.S.-China relations, despite progress on some fronts. President Hu’s visit will, therefore, be especially important for recalibrating the tone and direction of U.S.-China ties. The U.S.-China join

An experts’ report on the future of the nation’s health insurance system offered an extremely grim outlook ― a 16 trillion won ($14 billion) annual deficit by 2020 even if salaried workers steadily increase their insurance premium payments. The long-term estimate by the Health Insurance Policy Institute under the National Health Insurance Corp. sounded like an answer to the opposition Democratic P