UPDATE: TAIWAN's PRESIDENT FALLS INTO A DEADLY PATTERN

This reminds me of Japan's Abe and Thailand's Thaksin. Whenever their domestic performances go down, they try to look for foreign enemie that their country can unite against. In Japan, as Abe's popularity dipped, he went nationalistic with his controversial war denial and historical revisionist stance (lots of related posts in this blog). In Thailand, when Thaksin was being hit by billion dollar corruption charges, he tried to rally his people against the Philippines by fueling allegations of cheating in the South East Asian games.

And just recently, Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian went to the the conflict area Spratly Islands to assert his country's claims against several others like China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. This was said to have been done after his Democratic Progressive Party suffered a humiliating loss in the legislative elections three weeks ago.

The pattern seems to be so evident. So what's next? Chen's downfall? It happened with Thaksin and Abe...

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US PRESIDENTIAL CONVOYS

A columnist for a Philippine newspaper talks about the costs and massive preparations required by the US Secret Service whenever President Bush and other (US Presidents) travel outside of Washington DC. I remember watching a CNN report that showed how big a US presidential convoy is, compared to the two vehicle transport being used by Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK.

DOHA Round Updates & Preferential Tariffs in Practice

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