Asia Sentinel

3 days ago | asiasentinel.com | Xiaochen Su

By: Xiaochen SuChinese graduate students pose at ColumbiaAs a college admissions consultant helping high school students across the world increase their chances of gaining acceptance into top US universities, I have a front-row seat in witnessing the changing perception of America and its educational system under the Trump administration. It is a rapidl…

1 week ago | asiasentinel.com | Jens Kastner

By: Jens KastnerWhile the Chinese military has since 2022 frequently simulated blockades, joint precision strikes and cyber warfare against Taiwan, the mainland government has also been preparing recruitment of Taiwan’s hundreds of thousands of gangsters by compiling a "Taiwan Armed Gang Distribution Map", according to a series of investigative reports produced by Taiwan’s Chinese-language Mirror Weekly and first reported on in English by the China in Arms substack blog.

2 weeks ago | asiasentinel.com | Jens Kastner

By: Jens KastnerAmid deep concerns in the west, particularly in the United States vis-à-vis a long-threatened invasion of Taiwan, military planners in Taipei appear remarkably blasé. The island’s military spending inched up by a meager 1.8 percent year-on-year in 2024, far outpaced by the rest of East Asia’s average 7.8 percent – China at 7 percent, Jap…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.

3 weeks ago | asiasentinel.com | Majid Maqbool

By: Majid MaqboolThe carefully maintained calm in Kashmir has been shattered again by the sound of gunfire ringing through the Himalayan meadows of the Pahalgam hill station on April 22, taking the lives of at least 26 tourists, mostly Indian males, and injuring 10 others as gunmen stalked through the area, shooting defenseless people at will.

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.