The Politics of Human Rights in East Asia

Refugees fleeing East Timor. Tiananmen Square in China. The killing fields in Cambodia. Freedom of speech in Singapore. The subject of human rights in Asia is a hotly debated one. In The Politics of Human Rights in East Asia, the authors survey the human rights records and attitudes of each country.

The countries covered are: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Kenneth Christie covers Southeast Asia and Denny Roy covers Northeast Asia. They conclude with a discussion of the Association of East Asian Nation's (ASEAN) role and suggestions for the future. Throughout, they examine the competing meaning of human rights in the Western versus the non-Western context and place the role of human rights within the framework of each country's history and political and economic development.