East-West Center in the News

(2012-10-10) Still, the new plan is seen as a serious effort to integrate Muslims who have long felt like outsiders in the Catholic-dominated state, said Gerard Finin, a senior fellow at Honolulu's East West Center who has traveled and worked in the Philippines since the 1970s.

He sees two major challenges ahead, though. The mediators -- which include the United States, Europe, Malaysia and other Muslim nations -- must strive to keep the rebels unified behind the Moro Islamic Liberation Front leaders during the difficult negotiations ahead. And all must remain vigilant, Finin said, in protecting any new Bangsamoro government from being undermined by the multitude of political, economic and tribal conflicts of interest fueling the violence.

"There are still many big questions to be answered," Finin said. "But things are looking better today than they have for some time."

(2012-10-12) Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center, said that the growing importance of China within the regional economy is multiplying Beijing's economic leverage over its trade partners.

"One argument has been that the Chinese cannot or will not employ economic coercion because economic activity is so globalized," he said. "So the apparent willingness of Beijing to use economics as a political weapon has huge implications." < In 2010, China "squeezed Japan on rare earth elements," he said, in a prominent instance of Beijing using its economic clout to achieve a political outcome.

... According to Roy, the widely reported dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands has impacted the bilateral economic relationship in two ways.

"First, popular anger in China has made the atmosphere less friendly toward doing business with Japan," he said, explaining, for example, that Japanese businesses in China have reported being targeted by crowds of Chinese protesters. "Second, the Chinese government has used other levers, including economic levers, to pressure Japan over the islands dispute."

(2012-10-19) "It's an important advantage for Seoul to have a voice at the table when some of the Security Council's decisions in the near future will likely involve North Korea," said Denny Roy, senior researcher at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

-- Also appears in: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

(2012-10-20) "China will take this (cruise) as another expression by the United States of its desire to maintain regional domination," said Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii. "The U.S also wants to send a message to the region that it is here for the long haul ... and that it wants to back up international law."

-- Also appears in: ABC News, Arizona Republic, Asian Correspondent, Bangkok Post, Brattleboro Reformer, Business Mirror, The Guardian, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 國際日報 [International Daily News], KEYC TV, Kota, Spokesman-Review, U.S.News & World Report, Vacaville Reporter, ytwhw.com

(2012-10-27) There's a "continual tug-of-war between the party and the PLA," said Denny Roy, an expert on the Chinese military and senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"The party may not want to appear to be trying to stifle a popular nationalistic position expressed by a military man, (which could) turn public anger against the civilian leadership," Roy said.

-- Also appears in: ABC News, Associated Press via Yahoo! News, Businessweek, Daily Star, Fox News, KCAU, KLFY, New York Times, Quincy Herald-Whig, Salon, South China Morning Post, Taipei Times, WGME, WTOP

(2012-11-04)Denny Roy, senior analyst at the East-West Center, also said the Obama administration "seemed to make an effort to treat Seoul as a partner rather than simply dictating policy without regard to South Korean input." He added, "This was one of the better periods of US-ROK coordination."

-- Also appears in: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

(2012-11-08) "So the United States will likely not put much energy into a creative new approach for breaking the nuclear and security stalemate with Pyongyang," Denny Roy, the senior researcher at the Hawaii-based East-West Center, said.

He pointed out that the ball is in North Korea's court.

"Pyongyang will likely try again in early 2013 to gain another round of concessions," he added. "The question is whether they will lead off with a concession of their own, or a provocation."

Roy added the Obama government would remain "receptive to a gesture by Pyongyang."

-- Also appears in: Korea Times

(2012-11-08) Wu Kang is an expert on Chinese energy at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

"Something like 1,300 trillion cubic feet, or as low as 980 tcf. Different people quote different numbers. But if we talk about proven reserves… then, if you say zero, that's very close to reality."

(2012-11-10) But still - as Dieter Ernst, a senior research fellow at the East West Centre, Hawaii, said recently - we need to know the challenges the US faces in job creation. In a recent presentation, "Industrial Innovation and Employment", at a seminar of new generation policymakers, Ernst attributed the persistent unemployment in the US to a significant erosion of international competitiveness and innovation barriers such as lack of investment.

From 2001 to 2011, state and lo- cal financing per student in the US declined by 24 per cent despite a 72 per cent increase in tuition fees. This made student loans exceed $1 trillion, more than Americans owe to credit card companies. This, along with inadequate support for industry-related research, has seriously constrained US industry's ability to create more jobs, Ernst said. It has also resulted in a skill mismatch, with 3.2 million job vacancies going unfilled because employers couldn't find suitable candidates.

Besides, US trade deficit in advanced technology products increased from US$16.6 billion in 2002 to $99.6 billion in 2011, Ernst said, with the information and communications technology sector accounting for the largest share, causing jobs to flee abroad.

-- Also appears in: Asia News Network via Yahoo! Singapore News

(2012-11-12) Meanwhile, the co-director of the East-West Centre’s Pacific Islands Development Programme, Dr Gerard Finin, agrees that while media, specifically newspapers, attempt to be neutral as a matter of professionalism, in the process they present editorials that could endorse one candidate or the other.

“And they benefit financially from advertising,” he said.

“There’s the perception that some media favour a liberal or conservative candidate, are in favour of one or the other and I think that’s nothing new.”

But Dr Finin stresses that for all its faults and imperfections, the media remains a crucial ingredient of democracy.

“The media is so essential to the democratic process for the distribution of information and making the system honest — it’s absolutely essential,” he says.

“Winners will say the media is good and losers will say the media is unfair — and, perhaps, that’s human nature.”