“You are living under our authority. You have no choice. You must do what we say.” This is what Burmese soldiers told a woman who was sick of portering their army supplies. She told Human Rights Watch, “I tried to refuse to go because I was so tired and the things we are made to carry are very heavy. When I tried to refuse, they beat me.” This story could have come from almost anywhere in military-ruled Burma, but it is from one of the most isolated and neglected parts of the country, in the western borderlands with India. Chin State’s mountainous jungle villages are home to nearly half a million ethnic Chin people. These predominantly Christian, deeply impoverished people are completely under the boot of the Tatmadaw, or Burmese army.
Posted February 4, 2009

Published online in early December 2008, "Charter 08" is a blistering indictment of Chinese Communist Party rule. It lays out a bold, detailed vision of a new China: one with the rule of law, multiparty elections, and the separation of powers. I talked to Zhang Zuhua, one of the drafters of Charter 08, in Beijing last Dec. 26. In that interview, he made clear that Charter 08 was intended only as a political blueprint, and that reform could take decades, even generations. "We don't expect this change overnight," he said.
Posted February 6, 2009

REVIEW Deputy Editor Colum Murphy recently sat down with Thailand's new Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, who told Mr. Murphy that he will not "return power to the people" until calm returns to Thailand's political scene and the economy is fixed.
Posted January 23, 2009

Ever since Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted that $1 billion was missing from his company and that its books were a fiction, politicians and pundits have been blaming the scandal on lack of governmental oversight in the free-for-all that is the “New India.” But does this analysis stand up under scrutiny? Was Satyam an information-technology company playing by the rules of the new economy or an IT company playing by the rules of “Old India” with its government-planned industries, lack of transparency and chosen winners?
Posted January 28, 2009

DUBLIN—The Burmese junta’s disgraceful nonresponse to Cyclone Nargis last year called international attention to the direct human consequences of repressive rule in the Southeast Asian country. Since then, Burma’s economic plight has only worsened. It is time for the political opposition abroad to present a broader, more coherent alternative for the Burmese people. To this end, the legitimately elected representatives of the people of Burma—the Members of Parliament from the 1990 elections—are meeting in Dublin over the next few days to elect a new government-in-exile.
Posted January 23, 2009
(This commentary first appeared in The Wall Street Journal Asia, our sister publication, on January 22, 2009.)

Most Americans can’t pronounce “Hmong,” let alone know what Hmong is. So it’s interesting that Clint Eastwood’s new film, "Gran Torino," is about the journey of Hmong immigrants in America. The film evokes the unfinished business of the Vietnam War to get its message across. Unfinished because America left Vietnam, and the people who fought alongside for their freedom, before the job was done. As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees myself, the message I took from the film has little do to with its racial stereotypes or slurs. Instead it’s about what happens when America abandons the ideals that so many people come here for.
Posted January 24, 2009

As the extent of the U.S.-led financial crisis unfolds globally, developing Southeast Asian countries are finding themselves in the position of suffering the collateral damage. While not directly hit by the liquidity crunch like their larger and wealthier neighbors, they’re also not immune to the slowdown, being part of the chain that supplies goods to consumers in the West who are now crimping on their spending. Indeed, the crisis highlights how developing economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are being reduced to a fringe role in the global economic landscape, and how they’re facing the hard truth that they won’t be able to regain the “tiger economy” status they once held without building a stronger domestic base.
Posted January 20, 2009

Exactly one year after the Sri Lanka government pulled out of a six-year cease-fire agreement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and took the fight to the rebels, jubilant crowds in the streets of the capital Colombo were celebrating a major victory by the Sri Lankan military over the LTTE. But it would be premature to believe that this is the end of the bloody secessionist movement that has claimed thousands of Sri Lankan lives over three decades.
Posted January 9, 2009

The arrest last week of Satyam Computer Services, Ltd., Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju for falsifying corporate figures is being called “India’s Enron.” The Indian government’s decision to replace Mr. Raju’s entire board underlines how great a shock the Satyam fraud has been to the Indian establishment. Indeed, this is the first time the government has superseded a private corporate board. But then Satyam, once the country’s fourth-largest information-technology firm, is more than just any old company—it’s long been seen as an icon of the new Indian economy.
Posted January 14, 2009

As the only country in the world against which nuclear weapons have been used, Japan understands the horror and devastation that they can cause. Our strong stance on nonproliferation and the fact that we do not possess nuclear weapons have been powerful arguments in favor of Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. That said, I cannot imagine that the Japanese representatives who agreed to the U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement at the August meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) envisaged their yes vote as any sort of effort towards nuclear disarmament. The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal breaks every rule in the nonproliferation book, and Japan did nothing to stop it.
Posted January 13, 2009

Comments by China’s national defense spokesman last month make it about as official as it’s going to get: China’s navy is in the market for an aircraft carrier. This is a sign that Beijing sees its ultimate prize within grasp: emergence as East Asia’s pre-eminent great power. So should the region, and the protector of its stability for the last half century, the United States, be worried?
Posted January 13, 2009

After a stranger approached him for a job, Mohammad Salim told India’s NDTV Television he was escorted into a dark, paint-chipped room with gunmen who gave him an injection. He fainted and woke up with a pain in his side, a doctor standing over him. His kidney had been removed. The group paid him 50,000 rupees ($1,045) for the organ, but the crippling pain meant he was out of work—and in debt—for months. Medical advances, corruption, and growing poverty have all contributed to Asia’s booming organ markets, as “transplant tourists” increasingly jump waiting lists with ease to get organs in Pakistan, India, China and the Philippines.
Posted January 6, 2009

Climate change is usually discussed as tomorrow’s problem. But the world’s most elevated land, the Tibetan Plateau, is already feeling the effects of warming temperatures, melting glaciers and permafrost, and degrading pastoral ecosystems. Put simply, the Tibetan Plateau is melting, and edging toward an ecological disaster with grave implications for about a third of humanity.
Posted January 11, 2009