A HUGE CAST OF KNOWLEDGEABLE AND EXPERIENCED PEOPLE GAVE their time and insight during the writing of Asian Waters for which I am deeply indebted. Through the years hundreds have contributed to my own thoughts in trying to make sense of Asia and its impact on all our lives. All errors and miscalculations are, of course, my own.
From the Center for Strategic and International Studies, thank you to Bonnie Glaser, who runs the China Power Project; Greg Poling of the Asia Maritime Transparency Inititiative; Murray Hiebert, deputy director of the Southeast Asia Program, and Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy. Thanks also to Nicholas R. Lardy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics; Shihoko Goto, Northeast Asia Associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Asia Program; Nong Hong of the Institute for China-America Studies; and Michael McDevitt, Mark E. Rosen, Peter Swartz, and James Clad at the Center for Naval Analyses. Harlan Ullman of the Killowen Group introduced me to the US Naval War College, where Jeff Harley, its fifty-sixth president, gave me access to naval and Asian experts. Thanks to Peter Dutton, who leads the China Maritime Studies Institute and to Tom Culora, Andrew Erickson, Tommy Groves, Kelley Hinderer, James Kelly, Don Marrin, Terence Roehrig, Kathleen Walsh, and Toshi Yoshihara; to Elizabeth Delucia and Rob Duane for their historical perspective at the Naval War College Museum; and to Barbara Mertz and Daniel Marciniak for flawlessly arranging my visit to the college. I have drawn on research from many other institutions, notably the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution, the Foreign Affairs Council, the Heritage Foundation, and the Universal Peace Federation, specifically for help on the Korean Peninsula. In Britain I drew heavily from Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), and am grateful to the late Lord Williams of Baglan and to Bill Hayton and at the Royal United Service Institute, to Michael Clarke, Karin von Hippel, Shashank Joshi, and Veerle Nouwens; and at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, to Nick Childs and Nigel Inkster; to Kerry Brown from Kings College, London; to the BBC, where I have been helped by many colleagues on Asian Waters stories over the years, including John Boon, Alistair Burnett, Darren Conway, Anne Dixey, Malcolm Downing, Carrie Gracie, Don Gummerson, Amanda Gunn, Tony Grant, Tony Hall, Peter Hanington, Mary Hockaday, Dominic Hurst, Stephen Mulvey, Jonathan Patterson, Mark Perrow, Kate Peters, Joe Phua, Tim Platt, Vin Ray, Tim Rex, Andrew Roy, Paul Royall, Baskar Solanki, Fred Scott, Simon Smith, James Stephenson, Francesca Unsworth, Anna Williams, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Chris Wylde, and many more.
In China I am indebted to Christine Yu and Edera Liang Yan for logistical help; also to Wu Shicun of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies; Pu Ruoqian and Milton Nong Ye at Jinan University; students Wilson Lu Chuhau and Duran Wu Yusen; Liu Baocheng at the Center for International Business and Economics; Ruan Zongze of the China Institute of International Studies; Andy Qingan Zhou at the School of Journalism and Communication; Xu Guangyu of the Chinese Military Disarmament Control Council; Shi Yinhong of Renmin University; Danny Alexander at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; Carnegie Institute director Paul Haenle, and others who would prefer to remain anonymous.
For Taiwan, thanks to David Yung Lo Lin and Jo Y. C. Hsu in London, for insight and logistical help; to Daniel Chen and Isaac Wang on Kinmen Island; to Hsu Shao-liang, Lee Su-ching and their teams on Dongsha Island; and, in Taipei, Roy Chun Lee at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, defense analysts Chong-pin Lin and Edward Chen, and Paul Kuoboug Chang, Michael Chen, Jeff Lee, Hu Wei-ting, and their teams from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Vu Quang, Linh Hoang Do, and Nguyen Ngoc Huan at the Vietnamese embassy in London helped smooth my way to Danang, Hanoi, and Ly Son. Thanks in Vietnam to my guide and interpreter, Luoang Hoang Giap; to Nguyen Can Dong and Tran Cong Truc, who explained borders and Vietnam’s view of China; to others would prefer to remain anonymous; to Vu Vanh King, commander of the Quang Ngai Coast Guard; to Tran Ngoc Nguyen and his team on Ly Son Island, and to Vo Van Giau and his fellow fishermen there.
In the Philippines, Marites Vitug referred me to Purple Romero who doggedly arranged an itinerary. Thanks there to John Forbes and Ebb Hinchliffe at the American Chamber of Commerce; General Guillermo A. Molina Jr. and his team at Camp Aguinaldo; Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana; Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, and diplomats at the American embassy; Senator Gregorio Honasan; Speaker Jose de Vanecia Jr.; Jay Batongbacal at the Institute for Maritime Affairs and the Law of the Sea, University of the Philippines; Kristine Leilani Salle and her team at the Philippine Embassy in London; and others who would prefer their names not be mentioned.
On South Asia, thanks to William A. Avery, Brahma Chellaney, Namita Gokhale, Ashok Mehta, Hardeep Singh Puri, Navtej Sarna, Mihir Sharma, Navdeep Suri, and Vikas Swarup for steering me through the complexities there. On the ground in India, I am indebted to Sudhir Katiyar, Jignesh Mevani, Aeshalla Krishna and their teams from the Prayas Center for Labor Research; to Andy Griffiths, Matthew Joji, and Rosean Rajan from the International Justice Mission, who introduced me to Dialu Nial and the late Nilambar Mahji, just two of the tens of millions in South Asia born into dreadful lives of near slavery. Chandan Kumar from Action Aid helped in the Indian Tea Plantations, and thanks there to Vedprakash Gautam and Caroline den Dulk from the UN’s child protection agency, UNICEF; Sarah Roberts and Rohinton Babaycon of the Ethical Tea Partnership; campaigners Partha Pratim Sarkar, Anil Bomjon Chay, and Raju Thapa, from the Banda Pani Tea Garden; and plantation growers Samar Jyoti Ghaliha from the Dikom Tea Estate and Vijay Dalmia from the Merry View Estate. I worked closely with Andrew Brady from Britain’s Union Solidarity International, who set up the Blood Bricks campaign, and have learned much from Peter McAllister of the Ethical Trading Initiative, Peter Frankel from Amnesty International, and many others.
Colleagues and former colleagues gave time and insight, including including Nayan Chanda, Bob and Frankie Drogin, Susan Froetschel, Richard and Candy Gourlay, Hugo Gurdon, Steve Erlanger, Karin Landgren, Nancy Langston, Jonathan Mirsky, Cait Murphy, Rita and Geoff Payne, Gwen Robinson, Claudia Rosette, and Raymond Whitaker. Thanks also to the BBC, Nikkei Asian Review, Yale Global and others who used my journalism while reasearching Asian Waters.
Any book requires hard, professional teamwork, and I am grateful to David Aretha and Mary Sandys for tidying up the manuscript and prompting me to clarify arguments, descriptions, and explanations. Thanks to John Elliott for guiding me on India, Lesley Downer for her context and deep knowledge of Japan, and Adam Williams and Hong Ying for their help and insight into the intricacies of China’s history and vision.
Thank you to David Grossman, my agent for more than twenty years, who introduced me to the legendary Peter Mayer, owner of Duckworth Overlook. Asian Waters was Peter’s idea and throughout the process he prodded, suggested and challenged to make it a much better book. My appreciation too, to Tracy Carns, Matt Casbourne, Adam O’Brien and their colleagues at Duckworth Overlook.