The Japanese army invaded Burma in December 1941. It began only a few days after the surprise bomb attack at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii devastated the US fleet and signaled the expansion of the conflict across the Pacific and through Southeast Asia.
Depleted by the need to fight on fronts closer to home during World War II, few British and Indian army units had been left to defend the colony. They were, however, later joined by Chinese forces loyal to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
Rangoon, then the capital of Burma, fell to the Japanese in March 1942. Thailand had entered into an alliance with Japan and its troops supported the invasion.
The retreating British and Indian soldiers managed to break out to the north and in May, after the failure to halt the Japanese onslaught, a general evacuation of Burma was ordered.
“We got a hell of a beating,” General Joseph Stilwell, the US lieutenant general and chief of staff of allied armies in that region, told a press conference in Delhi on May 26, 1942, just days after he had marched out of Burma on foot, through the jungle, with his staff of 117 men and women. “We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out why it happened and go back and retake it.”
It was just months since he assumed command.
The Japanese army, which had launched attacks across the border into India but were heavily defeated by British and Indian forces at the Battles of Imphal and Kohima, close to the border with Burma, in 1944, was finally driven out of Burma in 1945.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath