Asia

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Indonesia’s election: Jokowi vs Prabowo

Indonesia is moving into election mode. There will be sweeping general elections in Indonesia in April next year for the presidency, the national parliament, provincial parliaments, and at the regional level across the nation. Australians might go to the polls around the same time, but there will be

By Peter McCawley

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Abe’s visit to Australia: raising the stakes

Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is scheduled to visit Australia this week on the heels of attending the ASEAN Summit. While there have been regular prime ministerial exchanges between Tokyo and Canberra throughout Abe’s long leadership tenure, there will be more at stake than usual on this

By Lauren Richardson

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The challenges facing APEC leaders

The Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) Summit is being held at a time of enormous global and regional geopolitical uncertainty. It is a tumultuous time for the region, and APEC 2018 provides a real opportunity for leaders to agree on the kinds of reforms that could make a positive difference

By Merriden Varrall

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Scoring China’s happiness quest

China is fast approaching the first of its “two centenaries”: the 100th anniversary in 2021 of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2021, according to its leaders, China will move from a “moderately prosperous society” (xiaokang shehui) into the next official stage, the “happy

By Gerda Wielander

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Signalling a whole-of-Australia approach to China

One of the most challenging aspects of Australia’s bilateral relationship with China is finding new ways to signal our interest in the big issues that are shaping the future of the region – a task almost as difficult as deciding amongst ourselves what those issues are. The signalling of

By Andrew Forrest

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Indonesia: Bela Negara action plan and pandering to the military

Between Prabowo Subianto’s promise to “Make Indonesia Great Again” and Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s warning that “winter is coming”, all eyes in Indonesia are transfixed on the upcoming presidential election. Yet beyond the campaign trail, Jokowi’s pandering to the Indonesian armed

By Luke Lischin

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Modi and Abe: judgement waits on India-Japan ties

India and Japan have forged a special strategic and global partnership over the years, and Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe have developed a personal and special relationship, propelling the relationship between the two nations to greater heights. Last month, Abe invited Modi to his

By Purnendra Jain

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Decoupling from China: cutting the Gordian Knot

The conviction that the interests of the US and China are fundamentally incompatible is gathering weight in Washington, as a consensus for confrontation with Beijing takes hold. Having progressively raised tariffs against Chinese-made goods, and adopted reports declaring that China’s “economic

By John Lee

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The new normal: a close naval encounter in the South China Sea

The release of video footage from the bridge wing of USS Decatur which shows its recent close encounter with the Chinese destroyer Lanzhou in the South China Sea confirms the judgement that the PLA Navy ship did not act wisely in its approach to the US Navy unit in response to the latter’s freedom

By James Goldrick

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Economic diplomacy: doing business with China, Donald’s soulmate

Out of the dark It says a lot about the dilemma of managing China and infrastructure that the federal government has signed three agreements* on the issue in the past year without revealing any more detail than the Victorian government has over its hasty Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

By Greg Earl

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Singapore: policing social media

My confidence in the Singapore judiciary is as limp as a flag on a windless day. This statement, written by a blogger in October 2013, is not considered in contempt of court. A judge said so herself. For a whole range of other statements about the judiciary, though, Singaporeans can’t be so

By Kirsten Han

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China: re-engineering the Uighur

Break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins. These chilling words are stated in an internal document, reported by news agency AFP, and encapsulate Beijing’s policy towards its ethnic Uighur minority. At the United Nations Human Rights

By Louisa Lim

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Chinese fishing fleet a security issue for Australia

China’s fishing fleet has been at the forefront of disputes in the South China Sea, and the expansion of China's fleet into the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean may soon create new security headaches for Australia. In 2013, the decline of fish stocks in Chinese waters, together with China’s

By David Brewster

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Sri Lanka: when is a political opinion a crime?

On 8 October, in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, former state minister and Tamil MP Vijayakala Maheswaran was arrested by the country’s Organised Crime Division. Any citizen has a right to dissent against government actions and raise issues affecting communities. Maheswaran had already

By Samir Pasha, Naga Kandiah

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Four reasons to manage China’s rise

No other development has so profoundly transformed international relations in recent years as the rise of China. Over the past 35 years, China has pulled the largest number of people out of poverty in history and, with 39%, has made the largest contribution to global growth since

By Dhruva Jaishankar

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How China changed its language on speech

The Heart Eyes Emoji is one of the most commonly used icons in today’s digital communications worldwide. The smiling face with heart-shaped eyes generally means adoration and love towards someone or something. It is not necessarily a romantic gesture, but it shows a level of approval and

By Vivienne Chow

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Facebook deploys a “War Room” ahead of India’s elections

Facebook, having learned the devastating consequences of its platform being misused to manipulate democratic process is taking no chances ahead of next year’s national elections in India. The organisation this month announced it is amassing a task force of specialists to reduce the chance of

By Aarti Betigeri

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Sadly, again, Indonesia fails on transport safety

Indonesia just can’t catch a break. Following earthquakes in Lombok in August, and a twin earthquake and tsunami in Palu in Central Sulawesi in October killing thousands, the country is once again reeling after Lion Air flight JT610 crashed into the Java Sea on 29 October. The plane was carrying

By Aisyah Llewellyn

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Deng’s ghost haunts Xi, as Maoism makes a return

President Xi Jinping is trying to lead the Chinese economy through a very difficult period. Yet despite Xi’s political nous, success is far from assured. Starting with the property market, a reliable indicator for future economic growth, Reuters reported that buyers: Are feeling a chill and

By Charlie Lyons Jones

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Elections a sham in Rakhine State

People go to the polls on Saturday in Myanmar, or at least some of them do. On 3 November 2018, the Union Election Commission will coordinate by-elections across 13 electorates. Most are to fill seats from vacancies due to deaths of senior members of parliament. There are two reasons these

By Melissa Crouch

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Melbourne joins the Belt-and-Road

Most maps of the Belt and Road Initiative, the People’s Republic of China’s signature international policy program, have sweeping arrows connecting China with almost all corners of the world. Yet even the most ambitious of these do not have any link to Australia’s most cultured city, Melbourne

By Nick Bisley

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Caught in the net: slavery on Southeast Asian seas

About an hour south of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, down a dusty, broken-edged road, dotted with grimy stores and street stalls, with the incessant buzz of motorbikes, stands a desolate building complex. Turn right at the festering drain, past the guard dozing in his chair, and the

By JJ Rose

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#Metoo catches up with Bollywood and India beyond

An awkward scene unfolded earlier this month in Lonavala, a hill town in the west of India. A group of men claiming to represent a regional political party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), entered a house where a reality television game show called “Bigg Boss” is filmed. They handed over a

By Krzysztof Iwanek

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With Trump in Mind, China Realigns

The past week says a lot about the quagmire that Chinese President Xi Jinping has found his country in, as his American counterpart Donald Trump has shown no sign of de-escalating the trade war rhetoric. It also offers a glimpse into the most powerful post-Mao leader’s political and strategic

By Stuart Lau

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The last man executed in Singapore, until the next

“All death penalty will be abolished. Full stop. Since we are abolishing the sentence, all executions should not be carried out,” declared Malaysia’s de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong on 10 October, designated the World Day Against the Death Penalty. Abolitionists in Malaysia rejoiced

By Kirsten Han

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Japan’s immigration and integration questions

Japan is widely considered one of the most monocultural and insulated countries in the world. This is reflected in the contradictions in its immigration policy. Japan is not an easy place to move to: it does not even have an immigration department that specialises in visa and border control

By Tets Kimura

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Indonesia: populism and politicisation of Islam

This is the second of two articles examining the politics behind Indonesia’s revised anti-terror law in the wake of the May family suicide bombings. The first article can be found here. The counter-terrorism landscape in Southeast Asia has fundamentally changed over the 15 years since Indonesia

By Greta Nabbs-Keller

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Indonesia’s anti-terror law: crisis to consensus

This is the first of two articles examining the politics behind Indonesia’s revised anti-terror law in the wake of the May family suicide bombings. The second article is available here. On 25 May 2018, less than two weeks after a series of suicide bombings and armed attacks on churches and

By Greta Nabbs-Keller

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Economic diplomacy: Japan + China, BRI push back

Bonsai diplomacy Australia’s China-befuddled political class could do worse than observe how the world’s leading centre-right politician Shinzo Abe manages a masterclass in “bifurcated hedging” when he arrives in Beijing today. The Japanese Prime Minister will be trying to rebuild old

By Greg Earl

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Island diplomacy: a storm in the Maldives

The Maldives, with its sun-soaked resorts and vivid turquoise waters, epitomises luxury and Instagram perfection for a breed of cashed-up holidaymakers and honeymooners. But the reality of the island nation is vastly different: creeping Salafism and hijabs, political uncertainty, and a gradual

By Aarti Betigeri

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Pakistan: indebted to China, Saudi Arabia, and IMF

Saudi Arabia was the first country Imran Khan visited after assuming office as Pakistan’s new Prime Minister. As he made the trip last month, he asked for financial help for Pakistan’s turbulent economy. Soon after his return, it was announced that Pakistan had invited Saudi

By Adnan Aamir

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India’s Arctic energy partnership with Russia

When people discuss Indo-Russian relations, they generally focus on Russia’s arms sales to India. However, India’s energy relations with Moscow also possess considerable and, arguably, growing significance. This was revealed at the latest bilateral summit this month during Vladimir Putin

By Stephen Blank

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Vietnam: why blogger Mother Mushroom went free

During US Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ two-day visit to Vietnam last week, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) quietly released the high-profile dissident blogger known as ‘Mẹ Nấm,’ or Mother Mushroom, on the condition of her exile to the United States. While Mattis’ trip and the

By Hunter Marston

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Friends like these … allies and the Pence speech

Vice President Mike Pence’s speech was tasty red meat for anyone desiring a more confrontational US policy toward the People’s Republic of China. Pence’s speech reflects a strengthening bipartisan consensus in Washington, and suggests that a long-term policy of competition and confrontation

By Iain Henry

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Vietnam’s quandary: red or green?

A hand-crafted map on the wall of the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture Sciences (VAAS) neatly captures the country’s strategic vulnerabilities as it emerges as a dynamic new regional player. The map is fashioned out of grains of rice to demonstrate Vietnam’s agricultural production prowess, but it

By Greg Earl

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Thawing tensions in the Himalaya

In the last few decades, state-making projects have transformed life in the Himalaya. Infrastructure development intended for troop deployment along disputed borders has, more recently, enabled large-scale transport and extraction projects and a tourist rush in this globally influential region

By Alexander Davis, Ruth Gamble, Gerald Roche, Lauren Gawne

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Killing Chimerica

Over a decade ago, the term “Chimerica” was coined to describe the symbiotic relationship between the US and Chinese economies. While offshoring manufacturing to China and opening access to US markets and universities benefited American interests, it also saw China’s share of world GDP jump

By John Lee

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Is the second Trump-Kim summit necessary?

The third summit between the leaders of North and South Korea last month was a huge accomplishment for Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un. At home, Moon’s approval rating shot up from 49% in early September to 65% a week after the summit, largely due to his successful efforts to jump start the

By Khang Vu

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South Asia diplomacy hostage to a bitter legacy

The bitter legacy of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 continues to be an impediment to normal relations between Pakistan and India. Proper and meaningful diplomacy between Bangladesh and Pakistan remains elusive nearly 50 years after the war of 1971. India and Bangladesh remain

By Syed Badrul Ahsan

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The geopolitics of China’s tax reforms

The continued legitimacy of the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping, as it was with former president Hu Jintao, depends on two main pillars: improvements in people’s material wellbeing and a strong sense of national pride. The notion that the government will improve the Chinese people’

By Merriden Varrall

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Mahathir: Uighurs “have done nothing wrong”

Horror stories have trickled out of China’s Xinjiang province for years. Now research points to a flood of human suffering and disturbing human rights abuses. Yet with threats of China’s economic retribution, many countries have been reluctant to voice concern against Beijing. With

By Elliot Brennan

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Daylight robbery: cyber escapades of North Korea

When a gang robs a bank, it’s a crime. When a nation launches an attack on another state’s territory, it’s an act of war. But what is it when a nation state robs another state’s banks, without ever setting foot on their soil? While political leaders and policymakers are increasingly aware

By Elise Thomas

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Japan’s complicated relationship with coal power

At first glance, it appears a sea change is underway in how Japanese banks and financial firms treat fossil fuels. According to a comprehensive study released by 350.org in September – Energy Finance in Japan 2018 – Japanese financial institutions underwrote over US$80 billion in loans for

By Frederick Kuo

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China: how big tech is learning to love the party

In mid-September, rumours swirled that Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications firm, would be acquired by an unnamed Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), effectively nationalising the company, which operates in 170 countries. The rumours were substantial enough to warrant a

By Elliott Zaagman

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Decoding the bombshell story for China

It is near impossible to find any mention of the Chinese chip hacking story in Bloomberg Businessweek that does not use the words “bombshell” or “explosive” to describe the piece. These descriptions have become cliché. But the cliché is fitting because even if the story unravels amid

By Samm Sacks

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The corridor of power

In January, rumours swirled around policy and security circles that China intended to build a military base in the Little Pamirs, a remote mountainous section of the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan that forms a narrow wedge bordering China, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. A journey to the Little

By Suzanne Levi-Sanchez

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Reconciling with China in the Pacific

Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Wang Yi struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone, expressing the wish to partner with Australia in the development of the Pacific

By Euan Moyle, Alexandre Dayant

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Shifting sands in Hong Kong

October is usually one of Hong Kong’s nicest months. The notoriously hot, humid, and rainy summer is gone, and the incoming autumn brings the city a pleasant, warm temperature alongside a stunning clear blue sky. But the usual cheerful vibe has dissipated this year. Not only have&

By Vivienne Chow

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See the difference: CGTN’s Australian gambit

Last month, billboards popped up around Australian capital cities, urging commuters and shoppers to “see the difference” as a panda and a kangaroo writhe in a harmonious embrace, while marsupials that look to have been penned by Guardian cartoonist First Dog On The Moon look on. Most commuters

By Graeme Smith

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Missing in action: India’s aircraft carriers

Long considered the crowning jewel of the fleet, India has continuously operated an aircraft carrier for well over half-a-century. Since 1961, when its first carrier entered service, India has gone to war with Portugal (1961), China (1962), and Pakistan (1965, 1971, and 1999). How is it then, that

By Himanil Raina

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