Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Japanese GSDF 2013

Green Left’s Federico Fuentes interviewed Japanese Communist Party (JCP) International Commission vice chair Kimitoshi Morihara regarding the peace and security initiatives the party is promoting to help counter growing militarisation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Barack Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” — the military, economic and political strategy to deploy more than half the US Navy to the Pacific — is continuing apace. Reihana Mohideen argues it needs to be resisted.

The recent ASEAN summit, hosted by US President Joe Biden, was designed to bring the 10-country association closer to the US’ anti-China orbit. William Briggs reports.

US exports to China totalled US$116 billion last year, while its imports reached $463 billion. The $347 billion deficit accounts for almost 70% of the US’s total trade deficit.

US President Donald Trump’s most influential senior advisers, Peter Navarro, who heads the National Trade Council, and US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross, call China “the biggest trade cheater in the world”.