The UNSC statement is more a testimony to Sino-US compromise arrived at after nearly a month and half of negotiations rather than being a “diplomatic victory” as has been hailed by North Korea.

While the economies of China and Taiwan are getting integrated and there has been increasing contact between the people across the strait, the two sides are maintaining a studied silence on unification.

There is no denying that Myanmar has an ongoing nuclear research programme but whether it has the intention of developing nuclear weapons remains unclear.

In a strong rebuke to the Kan government, voters deprived the DPJ and its tiny ally of a majority less than a year after the party swept to power.

Nationalistic imaging of the People’s Republic based on the Han identity could be the biggest obstacle to the pluralist solution that the contemporary situation in Xinjiang requires.

The issue at stake is the US upholding and expanding its role as the key shaper of geopolitics in Northeast Asia, and China unwilling to be sidelined by the United States.

That the Futenma issue is still a sore subject for the ruling DPJ-led government is reflected in the fact that it has decided not to field a candidate in Okinawa in the upcoming election.