Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore opened his home to many involved in Asia's cultural renaissance, including Okakura Kakuzo, who famously wrote "The Book of Tea."
Okinawa constitutes the lynchpin of Japan's positioning across the East China Sea, and US military presence remains the pivot for its security and defense.
The China factor has been a recurring campaign issue in US elections. But the question remains whether the new president will turn rhetoric into actual policy.
Beijing has been rapidly expanding its sea power ambitions in Africa by boosting its port infrastructure, including plans for a naval base in Equatorial Guinea.
Despite the fanfare, minilaterals like AUKUS will eventually wither away without delivering tangible results if they are not backed by concrete actions.
Xi and Putin's Beijing summit in May deepened China-Russia ties, integrating their soft and hard powers and blurring the line between wartime and peacetime.
China's Xiaokang villages along its India border are part of Beijing's strategy to exploit legal loopholes and negotiate territorial disputes on its own terms.
Japan's rich maritime history reflects its foreign and security policies, from 19th-century imperial ambitions to the establishment of modern trade routes.
China exploits the crisis in Myanmar by supporting anti-government forces while keeping the desperate junta reliant on investments and military support.
Contrary to China's claims, Japan incorporated the Senkaku Islands as vacant territory and its effective control over them went unchallenged for a long time.
The legacy of the Communists led by Mao was class conflict, while Confucianism, their designated enemy, advocated harmony, propriety, and benevolence.
China is expanding and diversifying its nuclear capabilities in both civilian and military sectors, boosting its global dominance in nuclear energy and weapons.