We would like to express our sadness and shock over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines MH17 and the death of 289 human lives on board, and condemn such cowardly action towards civilians if indeed perpetrated intentionally by any actor or faction. We offer our condolences to the families of the victims, and we are continuing to watch the story.
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This week we look at China and Japan continuing to increase their international presence: China establishes the BRICS Development Bank with Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa, and Japan’s foreign minister attends summit with Central Asian counterparts. We also take a look at anti-Israel sentiment in Taiwan over the Gaza conflict, and one year after the Dapu, Miaoli land expropriation incident. Tune in below:
- Last Tuesday, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa signed into effect the New Development Bank (NDB), a new international source of lending set up as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. While the bank may act to complement gaps in the world financial system by providing more voice to non-Western nations in development lending, the dominance of China within the group means that the bank may ultimately be underwriting China’s growing leverage over other nations…
- Japan’s foreign minister Fumio Kishida visited Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday and met with his counterparts from the five Central Asian republics to promote agricultural cooperation and anti-drug enforcement. Last week, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Australia to sign a free trade agreement between the two Pacific nations and pledged closer military cooperation…
- On Wednesday, dozens of protesters gathered in front of Israel’s representative office in Taipei to protest Israel’s military actions against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. As the violence continued, pictures of brutal civilians deaths in Gaza, especially of children, have been widely shared on social media in Taiwan…
- A year ago on July 18th, a family pharmacy that doubled as a home was forcefully demolished in the town of Dapu, in Taiwan’s Miaoli County. The demolition was the climax of a four year long struggle over the county government’s handling of land expropriations that led to two suicides, four properties demolished against the owners’ will, and student demonstrations across the nation. This year, around 200 people attended an anniversary event, held at the traffic intersection built over the pharmacy’s original site…
(Feature photo of Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepts Gaza rockets aimed at central Israel, by the Israel Defense Forces on Wikicommons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
