President Hu termed his visit to Japan as a “warm spring” journey that would herald in a new era of bilateral relationship based on mutual trust and long-term strategic interests. This is a lofty goal that the two countries could and should accomplish in their mutual interests and to the benefit of East Asia and beyond. After the deep freeze of years past, spring may have finally arrived in Sino-Japanese relations.

The spectre of Han domination often pokes through the idea of Chineseness. Most strikingly in the state's repeated broadcasts of Tibetans attacking Han in Lhasa and elsewhere. One interpretation is that these broadcasts were intended to project the idea that the Han were under threat and should therefore rally together and unite behind the party.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, in a press release in January, agreed that the new regulations had “improved overall reporting conditions for foreign journalists” but said that there had been more than 180 reports of journalists being obstructed in their work in the 12 months since the introduction of the new rules.

If the past five years of the Six-Party Talks tell us anything, patience, diplomacy, and negotiation skills are needed on the long road to North Korea’s denuclearisation. This week’s North Korea-US talks in Singapore is unlikely to lead to any resolution, but remains one part of a jigsaw that is vital is any eventual settlement.

In concert, a majority of voters were not convinced by the DPP’s claims that Ma would sell out Taiwan to China including a proposed common market, that his loyalty was questionable for allegedly holding a green card since his student days in the US, and that Taiwan would end up oppressed and bloodied like Tibet if Ma were to win the election.