"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
Last week I participated in a Sinica Podcast on issues surrounding the South China Sea and the fallout of North Korea’s sinking of the South Korean Navy vessel the Cheonan. From the introduction:
Are Chinese-American maritime relations running aground? The recent sinking of the South Korean corvette the Cheonan, most likely by China’s unruly client state North Korea, has led to the U.S.S. George Washington participating in naval exercises off the Korean coast. Heightening tensions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appearing at an ASEAN forum in Hanoi, challenged China’s long-standing claims to the Paracel and Spratly Islands — small reefs and assorted flecks of coral that happen to sit atop rich hydrocarbon stores in the South China Seas.
This week, the Sinica gang takes a lively look at Beijing and Washington’s maneuverings in China’s troubled coastal waters. Appearing with Kaiser are regulars Jeremy Goldkorn, Gady Epstein, and Bill Bishop. Joining us as well is special guest Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, the North East Asia project director for the International Crisis Group.
You can listen to the podcast here. One special note, listeners can enter into a drawing to win one dozen free mini-cupcakes from CCSweets, Beijing’s best cupcake shop (and owned by my girlfriend). And thanks of course go to the folks at Popup Chinese, probably the best online system for learning Chinese.
While we did not mention it in the podcast, for those interested in learning more about the history of the Korean War, I higly recommend Bruce Cumings’ new book-The Korean War: A History.
Please tell me what you think in the comments.
You can subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed here, get my more frequent Twitter updates @niubi, and see my Sina Weibo updates here. You can also follow my blogging on digital media and the Internet in China at DigiCha. And if you want cupcakes or custom cakes in Beijing, please check out my girlfriend’s CCSweets bakery. CCSweets has locations in Central Park in CBD and the Village North in Sanlitun, and you can always order online.