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The South China Sea has once again become a focal point of international attention following sudden clashes between coast guard vessels of the Philippines and China. As tensions rise, the involvement of global powers like the US and Japan adds further complexity to the situation, potentially pushing more nations to align against Beijing. Amid these escalating tensions, it becomes imperative for China to reconsider its assertive stance and respect the existing global order to avoid further international backlash The South China Sea (SCS) has once again come into focus following sudden skirmishes between the coast guard vessels of the Philippines...

China’s former top leader, Hu Jintao, was unexpectedly led out of Saturday’s closing ceremony of the Communist Party Congress, in a moment of drama during what is typically a highly choreographed event. Hu, 79, was seated in a prominent position at the front table in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, directly next to his successor, current leader Xi Jinping, when he was approached by a staff member, video of the meeting shows. While seated, Hu appeared to talk briefly with the male staff member, while China’s third most senior leader, Li Zhanshu, who was seated to his...

Communist Chinese President Hu Jintao has knocked off Barack Obama from the top of the Forbes most powerful person list. The Forbes list, which is published every year, is further confirmation of the glaringly obvious decline of American power and prestige—both real and perceived—since Obama assumed his job as president in January of 2009. The criteria for Forbes magazine to name a person to the list is based on his ability to bend the world to his will. Obama’s embarrassing demotion from number one spot atop the list to now sitting behind the communist in Hu Jintao is also a...

Just wanted to put the SNL Obama/Jintao press conference link up one more time, especially if you need a laugh today. http://harrisonprice.com/2009/11/23/snl-parodies-obamas-visit-to-china/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harrisonprice%2FfLuv+%28Just+Politics..%3F%29

Don't everybody thank me at once. Here's the Saturday Night Live skit featuring Obama and Jintao.

"Saturday Night Live" opened its show last night with a comedy sketch that scorched President Obama over his economic policies including health care, "Cash for Clunkers" and borrowing billions of dollars from China. The NBC program featured comic Fred Armisen portraying the commander in chief at a news conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, played by Will Forte, who spoke through an interpreter, comic Nasim Pedrad. Jintao began by asking Obama about the success of his economic stimulus. "I'm curious. How many jobs has it created?" asked the Chinese leader. "None," answered Obama. "But our health-care reform plan, we're confident,...

Here is the joint press conference skit with Jintao thinks he is entitled to at least a kiss, a movie and dinner before Obama "does sex to him". This is begging for a CNN fact check. Fred Armisen's impression is not improving much but this opener is still pretty funny:

MOSCOW — Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party. Or at least, the one that reigns next door. Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed. United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power. ..." “The accomplishments of China’s Communist Party in developing its...

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Serbian President Boris Tadic on Thursday agreed to establish a strategic partnership between the two countries. During their talks held Thursday afternoon, the two heads of state exchanged views on building and developing a strategic partnership and reached a broad consensus. Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) welcomes visiting Serbian President Boris Tadic in Beijing, capital of China, on Aug. 20, 2009.(Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)Hu highly valued Chinese relations with Serbia, saying the two peoples have traditional friendship and no matter what happened in the world, the relations between the two countries have developed healthily. He put forward...

CHINA'S President Hu Jintao has abandoned plans to attend a G8 summit in Italy, returning home early to deal with ethnic violence in the north-western region of Xinjiang that has left at least 156 dead in China's . The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website that Mr Hu had left for China "due to the situation" in energy-rich Xinjiang, which borders central Asia, where 156 people have been killed, 1080 injured and 1434 arrested in unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs since Sunday. Late yesterday, mobs of Han Chinese wielding clubs, metal bars, cleavers and axes had melted...

It is not such a big deal to disagree with a president and his policies. But it is shocking to realize that the leader of the world’s most powerful country doesn’t appear to understand the most basic principles of international relations. This isn’t surprising since Barrack Obama has no—zero, nada—previous experience in this area. It shows. There are two distinct ways other countries respond to this combination of his ignorance at realpolitik, urgent desire to be liked, and pride in projecting U.S. weakness:

Shadow World:  Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam By Robert Chandler Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2008 622 pp., $29.95 The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 is viewed by the West as the end of the Cold War and the death knell for Communism. In reality, Communists continued to push for the same ultimate goal -- creating a socialist world order -- but their violent Marxist-Leninist revolutionary tactics were supplanted by an insidious cultural Marxism. Today, that push has evolved into a Moscow-led,  global strategic quadrangle consisting of Russia, China, Iran and a collection of Latin...

LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged. From hundreds of supporters crowded around televisions in rural Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, to jubilant Britons writing "WE DID IT!" on the "Brits for Barack" site on Facebook, people celebrated what they called an important racial and generational milestone for the United States. "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila...

On February 22, 2008, Ben Smith of Politico reported a story that ran under the headline, “Obama once visited ‘60s radicals.” It concerned how, “In 1995, [Illinois] State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to few of the district’s influencial liberal at the home of two will known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” Dr. Quentin Young, described as “a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payers health care,” [1] was quoted as saying “I can remember being one of small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that...

Ideology matters again. The big development of recent years is the rise not only of great powers but also of the great-power autocracies of Russia and China. True realism about the international scene begins with understanding how this unanticipated shift will shape our world. Many believe that when Chinese and Russian leaders stopped believing in communism, they stopped believing in anything. They had become pragmatists, pursuing their own and their nation's interests. But Chinese and Russian rulers, like past rulers of autocracies, do have a set of beliefs that guide their domestic and foreign policies. They believe in the virtues...

There is a sinister reason why the U.S. dollar is falling against all currencies, pushing the Canadian Loonie to parity and way beyond to US$1.25 in a year or so. There is a Currency Cold War being waged by Russia, Iran and various allies such as Venezuela. Putin wants to force the use of euros as a reserve currency instead of dollars for oil and other transactions, then eventually the ruble. This is simply a monetary version of the old Cold War, minus the missiles. Alliances are falling along the usual lines: In Russia’s camp are America’s enemies or...

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Joint military exercises involving troops from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will continue till August 17. More than 6,000 troops and 36 aircraft from the six nations are currently engaged in China’s far northwest Xinjiang region for two days; tomorrow they will move to Chelyabinsk, Russia. The exercises are intended to improve cooperation against terrorism, drug and weapons trafficking and criminal gangs as required by an agreement of mutual assistance against armed attacks. But the real objective is political. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Hui noted that “this is the first time that all the leaders...

Russian and Chinese troops are joining forces this week in the first military exercises by an international organisation that is regarded in some quarters as a potential rival to Nato. Thousands of soldiers and 500 combat vehicles will take part in “Peace Mission 2007”, organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Russian officials have also proposed an alliance between the SCO and a body representing most of the former Soviet republics. Scores of Russian and Chinese aircraft begin joint exercises tomorrow before a week of military manoeuvres from Thursday that will include Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to "purify" the Internet, state media reported on Wednesday, describing a top-level meeting that discussed ways to master the country's sprawling, unruly online population. Hu made the comments as the ruling party's Politburo -- its 24-member leading council -- was studying China's Internet, which claimed 137 million registered users at the end of 2006. Hu, a strait-laced communist with little sympathy for cultural relaxation, did not directly mention censorship. But he made it clear that the Communist Party was looking to ensure it keeps control of China's Internet users,...

THE Chinese are openly debating "regime change" in Pyongyang after last week's nuclear test by their confrontational neighbour. Diplomats in Beijing said at the weekend that China and all the major US allies believed North Korea's claim that it had detonated a nuclear device. US director of national intelligence John Negroponte circulated a report that radiation had been detected at a site not far from the Chinese border. The US may have employed highly classified satellite technology to detect tiny leaks of gas or elements associated with nuclear detonation, according to a diplomatic source in the Chinese capital. This would...