This is the third in a new series of columns on global affairs which will be written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. --Ed. The Philippine Left has a gift for mischievous phrase making, and last week’s coinage was both obvious and effective. #Chexit, with the now-obligatory hashtag, quickly made the rounds. Inspired by the tumultuous campaign to consider Britain’s exit from the European Union, the new catch phrase was code for th

Once the domain of the world’s militaries, a new breed of drones have taken flight and are being raced in competitions around the world such as Korea’s GiGA Drone Race in Seoul last year, the World Drone Prix 2016 in Dubai and upcoming Drone Worlds world championship races in Hawaii this October. These high-performance racing drones are being created by the next wave of drone developers and are pushing the thresholds of robotics, aeronautical engineering, machine vision, battery technology, and

On July 8, The South Korean Defense Ministry agreed to deploy the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula. China’s response was strong and immediate. It protested the move publicly, and also lodged formal complaints with the ambassadors of South Korea and the U.S. North Korea was also furious, saying that the deployment is “tantamount to a proclamation of war and a major act of crime that could never be forgiven.” Russia took that opportunity to side with

Book publishers are an endangered species. Amazon.com may be the most immediate worry for anyone in the book publishing business, where fear of the Internet retail giant’s power over content and distribution is pervasive. As a former publisher, I understand the economic challenges of today’s marketplace.Global publishing industry fears, however, go beyond the mere concerns surrounding profit margins and shelf placement. In Hong Kong, publishers and booksellers have a deeper, more immediate worry

Two years ago, the government established a task force, composed of major conglomerates and civic groups, on narrowing the nation’s gender gap and increasing women’s participation in the workforce.Despite the effort, South Korea still has an enormous gender gap, with the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2015 placing Korea 115th out of 146 nations in gender equality.According to the report from the Swiss-based WEF, female economic participation and opportunities stood at 56 perc

Pyongyang has test-fired three ballistic missiles in an apparent protest against the Seoul’s decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in the southern county of Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province.Like military officials’ interpretation, the North’s missile launches are in line with its earlier threats. Last week, it warned of a “physical counteraction” after South Korea and the U.S. announced the THAAD deployment, scheduled for 2017, to better deal with evolving nuclear a

Every day a parade of presidents, cabinet ministers, government officials, academics, journalists and countless business leaders passes through the San Francisco Bay Area. They come from every corner of the world, but particularly from Europe and China, looking to understand how innovation happens in the region, and why so many world-leading technology companies come from there. Essentially they’re looking for the future, believing that much of the world’s economy will be shaped by what’s happen

The skylines of some of China’s biggest cities sprout from land that was farmed less than a generation ago. For the government, they’re a soaring testament to the country’s transformation into an urbanized superpower. And despite China’s economic slump, there are plenty of bureaucrats who’d like to see the process continue. According to a report last week, local governments are planning to develop more than 3,500 new urban areas in the next few years, with the capacity to house 3.4 billion peopl

The hours-long detention of Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn by thousands of angry residents of Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, last week was a serious incident. The unruly crowd temporarily incapacitated the prime minister while he was heading the government on behalf of President Park Geun-hye who was then attending the Asia-Europe Meeting in Ulan Bator. Surrounded by the unruly, violent crowd who were throwing eggs, water bottles and other objects in the county office compound, the prime mini

Last week, a close friend of mine told me that he is constantly badgered by people around him.This friend, a smart, well-educated and kind-hearted man in his early 40s with a respectable job was “bullied” by his colleagues for no other reason than that he was not yet married.“Don’t you have a father? Your family must be ashamed of you,” was one of the remarks that he heard from his superior. “What is the use of decorating your place if you are not married?” was another.The comments — to which th

In the uproar following the attempted military coup in Turkey, relations between Washington and Ankara, already badly strained, appear to be headed for new difficulty.The immediate test will be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s demand that the United States extradite Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish Muslim leader blamed by Erdogan for the coup attempt. Obama administration officials say they will consider any such request, under an existing extradition treaty with Turkey. But the issue

Since 2013, the Ministry of Education has sought to weed out poorly managed universities as demand for higher education is forecast to drop due to the falling population of high school graduates.Yet the ministry has made little progress thus far. Last month, Hanlyo University in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, announced it would close in the second half of the year, becoming the first university to do so under the incumbent government. Under the preceding administration, six universities had b

Justice Minister Kim Hyun-woong and Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam apologized Monday over the arrest of Jin Kyung-joon, a senior prosecutor, for taking bribes from a leading online games firm.　On Sunday, Jin became the first high-ranking prosecutor in the 68-year history of the nation’s prosecution system to be arrested while in office. He is accused of making some 12 billion won ($10.5 million) through shady stock transactions involving Nexon Co. 　Jin is also alleged to have pressured Hanjin Gr

Koreans tend to be conscious of what others think of them, rather than what they think of themselves. Strangely, however they do not seem to care about what foreigners think of Korea. Embarrassingly, many foreigners I met lately call South Korea a weird country.  Due to the nature of my job, I frequently meet with foreign nationals who either live in Korea or are here on a visit. To my Korean friends who tell me that I spend too much time with foreigners, I humorously answer that it is an occupa

Still reeling from Brexit’s cold slap, Europe sought salve in the form of NATO’s summit in Warsaw this month. The continent needed to show its resolve to unify in the face of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. As it happens, there’s an adversary to the east that amply serves as an entity to unify against.NATO decided to answer Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggressiveness in Ukraine with the deployment of 4,000 troops in Poland and the Baltic states along Russia’s western border

Koreans tend to be conscious of what others think of them, rather than what they think of themselves. Strangely, however they do not seem to care about what foreigners think of Korea. Embarrassingly, many foreigners I met lately call South Korea a weird country.  Due to the nature of my job, I frequently meet with foreigners who either reside in Korea or are here on a visit. To my Korean friends who tell me that I spend too much time with foreigners, I humorously answer that it is an occupationa

Barack Obama was just beginning to enjoy himself. He’d been itching to throw himself into the 2016 presidential race and do what he could to ensure that Donald Trump wouldn’t succeed him as President of the United States. It was evident throughout the campaign that he backed his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, but he had to wait to declare his support openly until it was certain that Sen. Bernie Sanders couldn’t beat her at the convention. His entry into the campaign came at a time w

As the chaos in Turkey is starting to clear, investors are asking what the failed coup might mean for the country’s economic future. The news stories show many conflicting elements in play, and right now it is hard to make specific verifiable claims about what the country can expect. We can, however, turn to the broader historical record, and that suggests failed coup attempts against democratic governments don’t much lower subsequent rates of economic growth in those countries.Assistant Profess

July 17 is Constitution Day in South Korea. It honors the day that the Republic of Korea adopted its Constitution in 1948. Since then, the Constitution has been amended a number of times in response to changes in the national leadership. The most recent amendment was the set of democratic reforms in 1987 in response to the successful democracy movement.  The 29 years since the most recent amendment represents the longest period of Constitutional stability in the history of the Republic of Korea.

The latest developments surrounding the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system here are exposing problems this country faces whenever it confronts an issue like this: incompetent government, populist politicians and selfish residents.The primary blame for the U.S. antimissile system becoming another contentious issue should go to the Park administration. The way President Park Geun-hye, her ministers and aides are handling the issue shows how incompetent the government is.F