Philip Bowring

3 weeks ago | asiasentinel.com | Philip Bowring

With all the talk of the Global South, of efforts to expand the so-called BRICS group, of finding ways to end the privilege and power of the US dollar, scant mention is being made of the 70th anniversary of where this all began in 1955: Bandung. It was here that a gathering of freedom fighters and post-colonial giants -- India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, Ghana’s Nkrumah, China’s Zhou Enlai, and more were hosted by Indonesia’s Sukarno, then at the height of his prestige.

1 month ago | asiasentinel.com | Philip Bowring

He may be 78 years old, but Donald Trump sounded like a self-pitying spoiled child when he unveiled his packet of tariffs which is supposed to raise money, cure the trade deficit and deliver punishments, almost the worst of which fall on the US’s major Asian friends – Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India – as well as Europe. The underlying theme in Trump’s mind is that unfair practices by foreigners account for the trade deficit.

1 month ago | johnmenadue.com | Philip Bowring

_My country, right or wrongseems to be the mantra to which Chinese people must adhere whether viaindoctrination in schools or by command of the national security law. However, noted the British writer G.K. Chesterton in a 1901 essay, that phrase was the last thing that a true patriot would say. Patriotism involved principles and behaviour, not to be conflated with the specific actions of ones national government.

1 month ago | asiasentinel.com | Hamish McDonald |Philip Bowring

This is a rare and excellent book about a region which had to be invented but is nonetheless very real for that. Melanesia, as Hamish McDonald points out early, was defined as islands which were not Polynesia and not Micronesia, and where people generally had blacker skin than those of the other South Pacific islands. Nor did they share, unlike the Poly…Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Asia Sentinel to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

2 months ago | asiasentinel.com | Philip Bowring

Most of the US media have gone along with “Art of the Deal” Donald Trump’s claim of victory with the agreement for a consortium led by Wall Street giant BlackRock to acquire management of Panama’s ports. Hence it is claimed to have taken them away from China and returned them to US control. The reality is that port was never under Chinese control.