Geopolitical Monitor - Region: East Asia

The anniversary of Japan’s surrender in WWII has come and gone with two noteworthy developments: no visits from the Japanese cabinet to the Yasukuni Shrine and a strongly-worded apology from Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

August 19th, 2010 (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - An explosion in China’s restive Xinjiang province has once again raised fears of a repeat of last July’s violent riots.

August 18th (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - The US Department of Defense has submitted its annual report on Chinese military power to Congress. While the report proved enough to elicit a fiery response from the Chinese government, it can be taken as evidence that the Pentagon wants to play down the ‘China threat’ for the time being.

August 16th (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - Japan received two pieces of bad news this month: its quarterly GDP grew at the tepid rate of 0.1 percent, and it has been overtaken by China as the second largest economy in the world.

August 10, 2010 (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - Media outlets recently reported that Canada's air force scrambled two CF-18s to intercept Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers off the coast of Newfoundland. The Government of Canada claimed the bombers strayed into Canadian airspace; the Russian government denied Ottawa's claim.

August 9th (Geopoliticalmonitor.com) - A radical Muslim cleric who was arrested in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings and then released has once again been arrested on terror charges in Indonesia.

In early 2010, conflicts between China and the US came thick and fast, leading to the most serious political disturbance between the two countries since the plane collision in 2001. At the beginning of April, as the heads of both countries talked over the telephone and Chinese President Hu Jintao attended a nuclear security summit in Washington, Sino-US relations became less tense. Tensions were further eased by the Second China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue held in Beijing in May.

With the Chinese government jumping in to protect North Korea from international fallout over the sinking of the Cheonan, it should come as no real surprise that the two allies have united in their disdain for planned US-South Korean military exercises.

July 21st (Raw Story) - China's largest reported oil spill more than doubled in size to 165 sq. miles (430 sq. kilometers) by Wednesday, forcing nearby beaches to close and prompting one official to warn of a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

It seems that the days of a Chinese foreign policy based on not ‘rocking the boat’ are over. Over the next few years, expect Beijing to increasingly assert itself as a global power.