Asia

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Taiwan: The age-old question of who gets a vote

Taiwan is often held to be a beacon of progressiveness due to its legalisation of same-sex marriage and its efforts at gender equity. However, in terms of voting laws, Taiwan lags behind. The voting age in Taiwan is 20, unchanged since the 1947 constitution. Only 11 countries have a voting age above

By Timothy S. Rich, Madelynn Einhorn, Isabel Eliassen

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Economic diplomacy: Burning down the house

Follow the money Forget Extinction Rebellion, carbon border adjustment mechanisms and doctors’ wives in inner city Liberal seats. When Prime Minister Scott Morrison locked onto the existential message in this week’s United Nations climate change report it seems to have been about how foreign

By Greg Earl

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How can Australia reset relations with China?

Australia-China relations appear caught in a well-charted downward spiral. In the past year alone both countries have lodged complaints against the other with the World Trade Organisation and a freeze on high-level diplomatic relations remains in place. China has slapped tariffs on key Australian

By Bec Strating, Kate Clayton

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Afghanistan: Russia faces its own risks and uncertainty

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan offers some opportunities to Russia – but exposes it to greater uncertainty and risk. Russia has long been ambivalent about the US/NATO force presence in Afghanistan. On the one hand, Moscow recognised, and valued, the stabilising role they played in the

By Ian Hill

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The battle for Myanmar’s seat in the UN General Assembly

Across Myanmar, the battle continues between the military and those opposed to the military coup d’etat of 1 February 2021. Opposition to the coup began with non-violent resistance in the form of the Civil Disobedience Movement. The aim is now revolution and an end to the military’s decades-long

By Catherine Renshaw

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Australia and the Growing Reach of China’s Military

Beijing’s maritime and aerospace capabilities will have serious implications in the event of an Indo-Pacific power play

By Thomas Shugart

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Xi's tech crackdown preserves socialism with Chinese characteristics

Protecting foreign investors has never been a top priority. Originally published in Nikkei Asia Review

By Richard McGregor

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Australia and India: A time to refocus on trade talks

Australia’s former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has just completed a packed visit to India from 2–6 August as Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s special trade envoy. Abbott should have reason to be encouraged by his interactions and his meetings with a cross section of decision-makers in India,

By Anil Wadhwa

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Life in a host city, at home, live-streaming the Olympics

One of the unexpected benefits of studying abroad for an extended period is the new perspective it brings to understanding your own country. Certainly, my first two years of study abroad in Tokyo the 1980s, in pre-internet times, taught me things about Australia that I didn’t know, like just how

By Donna Weeks

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Hong Kong security law flexes Beijing’s international muscle

Last Friday, 24-year-old Tong Ying-kit was sentenced to nine years in prison under the so-called Hong Kong National Security Law (HKNSL), although its official title – The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region –

By Perry Q Wood

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Is Pakistan fuelling a Taliban takeover?

As districts fall to the Taliban one after another without resistance, the government in Afghanistan has squarely put the blame on Pakistan for the mayhem in the country. This is because the Afghan officials believe that without help from Pakistan, the Taliban could not possibly takeover

By Hussain Nadim

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“I am a Taiwanese”: Eastern Europeans see a Cold War in East Asia

The politics of the Baltic states do not often create much of a stir in East Asia. That changed in October last year when the prime minister-elect of Lithuania, Ingrida Šimonytė, proclaimed shortly after her victory that the new ruling coalition would support those who “fight for freedom” in

By Josh Stenberg

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Man on a mission: Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan

President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan in a short space of time aligns with the priorities of the Democratic party, but it would be a mistake to view the decision as ideological and impetuous. Since Biden’s opinion on American involvement in Afghanistan has

By Erin Hurley

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India-US ties: Work in progress

Diplomatese papered over the political turbulence in India during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s two-day official visit to the country on 27 and 28 July. Narendra Modi’s government has been stigmatised not only by the Indian public and the opposition parties for its excesses against

By Sarosh Bana

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Russia and Vietnam: An alliance of convenience

Russia is one of the biggest suppliers of weapons to Southeast Asia, with Vietnam alone a major customer for Russia’s arms. While it is estimated that throughout the 1980s Moscow had provided Vietnam with an average of US$1 billion annually in military assistance and another US$1 billion annually

By Nikola Mikovic

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China threatens the West’s primacy, not its democratic systems

Some Western leaders, including Scott Morrison, have begun to describe the contest with China in starkly ideological terms, as a defence of democracy against authoritarianism. They say China threatens to replace the democratically-based “liberal international order” with a new order founded on

By Hugh White

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China’s Afghan conundrum

Beijing traditionally looked with discomfort at the presence of US troops in Afghanistan, urging Washington to withdraw. Now, as the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, China has changed tack, criticising the US for the “abrupt” nature of its exit. While not baseless, such criticism

By Henry Storey

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Why China and North Korea decided to renew a 60-year-old treaty

Sixty years have passed since the China-North Korea Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance was signed on 11 July 1961. On the anniversary this month, China’s President Xi Jinping and North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un pledged to renew the Treaty for another 20 years, as China and

By Khang Vu

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Bad news for Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

The release of recent research from the Netherlands adds an additional insight into what is happening in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the country’s all-important food producing region that contributes some fifty per cent to its agricultural GDP. In a stark conclusion the research cites 2050 as the

By Milton Osborne

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Lowy Institute Conversations: Sophie McNeill on Chinese students and academic freedom in Australia

In this episode of Conversations, Jennifer Hsu talks with Sophie McNeill about academic freedom, Australian universities, Chinese international students and the Chinese government.

By Jennifer Hsu

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Far more world leaders visit China than America

In April, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga became the first foreign leader to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House. Suga’s trip marked the return of leader-level travel to Washington after the Covid-19 pandemic. Suga told reporters that his team was so excited to meet their

By Neil Thomas

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India: A very colonial hangover

In the 1830’s Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay set about drafting a piece of legislation that would outlive not just him but also the empire that gave him the license to do so. Indeed, it’s a cruel irony that Macaulay’s world view, long discredited in the former colony, has found an almost

By Edmond Roy

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When the chips are down: Biden’s semiconductor war

Export control policy in the semiconductor sector – an industry that supplies the world’s computer, smartphone, appliances and medical equipment industry with electronic chips – was at the forefront of Donald Trump’s tech war against China. The addition of China’s top chipmakers, such as

By Tian He

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Another proxy war in Afghanistan?

With the US in the process of withdrawing the last of its troops from Afghanistan, it has taken little time for fierce fighting to flare up in several parts of the country, as the Taliban seeks to wrest control from the elected government. Already, it has overrun large swathes of territory and is

By Aarti Betigeri

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Xi Jinping reels in his tech titans

Private enterprise created China’s vaunted digital economy. But Big Brother is always in charge. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Richard McGregor

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China’s numbers game harms us all

Speaking before a crowd at Tiananmen Square that gathered in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping triumphantly declared that the goal of building China into a “moderately prosperous” society had been completed. Though without a clear measurable

By Elliott Zaagman

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US-China rivalries: What matters for ASEAN

An interesting discussion about how Australia should respond to US President Joe Biden’s call for closer alignment and cooperation among democratic states has featured in a recent series of articles on The Interpreter. Between them, Susannah Patton and Ashley Townshend, Michael Green, Ben

By Nurliana Kamaruddin

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Bringing the grey zone into focus

Australia’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update was, by the standards of such publications, a hard-hitting document. It had a particularly strong focus on grey zone activities, seen as increasingly troubling the Indo-Pacific and involving “military and non-military forms of assertiveness and coercion

By Peter Layton

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The politics of PacMan

Boxer and Philippine senator Manny Pacquiao knows how to pick his fights. For weeks, the champ has engaged President Rodrigo Duterte in a word war. First, Pacquiao jabbed Duterte’s leniency on the incursion of Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea – a major thorn in the President’s side

By Michael Beltran

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China’s looming succession crisis

What will happen when Xi is gone? Originally published in Foreign Affairs

By Richard McGregor, Jude Blanchette

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Australia buying Digicel hits two birds with one stone

On top of staving off a China telco monopoly, underwriting the purchase would show the government is putting big money on the table to get ‘blue chip’ companies to invest in the Pacific. Originally published in the Australian Financial Review

By Jonathan Pryke, Shane McLeod

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Postcard from Tokyo 2020+1

My university campus sits amid several Olympic venues and the international media centre, down by the ports on Tokyo Bay. From my tenth floor office, I can observe the construction of the second Olympic flame plinth and across the port, the island where canoeing events will be held. On the other

By Donna Weeks

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Press freedom more important than ever in the Asia–Pacific

The current Covid-19 pandemic has had an alarming impact on press freedom. Over the past 18 months, governments across the Asia–Pacific have – knowingly or not – used the health crisis to restrict the flow of information, stifling the press freedom that underpins societies and the rights of

By Olivia Pirie-Griffiths

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Indonesia cannot afford to put its economy before people

Since mid-May, Indonesia has faced a massive surge in Covid-19 infections with the number of reported positive daily cases increasing fivefold. As of the most recent update from the World Health Organisation, Indonesia has recorded more than 2.5 million positive cases since the pandemic began and

By Eduard Lazarus, Teguh Maulana

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Olympic glory: Tokyo’s success is a win for Beijing

As the excitement of Euro 2020 fades into the football world’s collective memory, another international sporting event rapidly approaches. The Tokyo Olympics, after being in doubt for over 12 months, are now less than two weeks away. It won’t just be Japan wanting things to run smoothly when the

By André Leslie

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Sun, surf and a sandbox escape from a pandemic

Before the pandemic, Thai island Phuket offered visitors the perfect blend of sun, beach and seedy-but-fun nightlife as one of the region’s best-known tourist destinations. Now, it offers visitors something much more novel: a quarantine free holiday. As of the start of July, fully vaccinated

By Erin Cook

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China’s law on conscription under revision

Last December the Chinese government released its updated National Defence Law in order to rectify the law with changes in the organisation, structure and missions of the Chinese armed forces undertaken over the past two decades, especially those resulting from force-wide reforms initiated on 31

By Dennis J. Blasko

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Afghanistan, Australia and the visa conundrum

With the advance of the Taliban in parts of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of coalition forces, the question of how to help Afghans who worked intimately with Australian forces has become a significant media and political issue. Former Prime Minister John Howard, who dispatched Australian troops to

By Rodger Shanahan

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Taipei’s growing legion of friends

“If a major problem occurred in Taiwan, it would not be going too far to say it could be an existential threat [for Japan].” These are the words of Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso during a speech in Tokyo last week. In a significant shift in Japan’s foreign policy, he stated, “If

By Natasha Kassam

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Xi and beyond

After more than four decades of reform and opening up, the centenary celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were an opportunity for the Party-state to proclaim the success of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. President Xi Jinping’s speech on 1 July made no bones about China

By Jennifer Hsu

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Whatever happened to the South China Sea ruling?

Five years ago on this day, an international tribunal in a landmark ruling dismissed Beijing’s claim to much of the South China Sea. The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague said on 12 July 2016 that there was no evidence that China had exercised exclusive control historically over the key

By Pratik Jakhar

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Covid crisis deepens in junta-ruled Myanmar

A worsening third wave of Covid-19 is a cruel new blow in Myanmar, still reeling from the human costs of the coup on 1 February, and with a military junta more focused on combatting dissent than combatting the virus. Thousands of new cases have arisen since late May, and the Delta, Alpha and Kappa

By David Hopkins

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Abandoning Afghanistan won’t bring peace

Bagram airbase, the nerve centre of US and allied forces operations in Afghanistan, turned into a ghost town over the American Independence Day 4 July weekend. Reports indicate that US forces left in the dead of night on 2 July without informing their Afghan counterparts. Afghans are stunned that

By Nishank Motwani

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China’s forced invisibility of LGBTQ communities on social media

This week, Chinese multinational technology giant Tencent shut down hundreds of accounts on WeChat linked to LGBTQ groups. Suddenly millions of queer people in China were confronted by a blunt message on their favourite social media accounts: In response to related complaints, all content has been

By Ausma Bernot

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Ukraine: Balancing China and the rest

Ukraine is attempting to improve its relations with China after the nation’s authorities, allegedly pressured by the United States, decided to halt the takeover of a local aircraft engine manufacturer by a Chinese company. Ukraine is typically seen as country inside a Western sphere of

By Nikola Mikovic

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Staying ahead in global tech leadership

On the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping reiterated the longstanding Chinese goal of strengthening science and technology to help achieve national rejuvenation. China’s advances in areas such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and facial recognition have already

By Jennifer Jackett

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The Director’s Chair: Matt Pottinger on his career, working for President Trump, China and COVID

In this episode of The Director’s Chair, Michael Fullilove speaks with the former US Deputy National Security Adviser, Matthew Pottinger

By Michael Fullilove

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Playing catch-up: Britain’s re-engagement with Southeast Asia

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made a whirlwind trip last week to Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore – three key nations that figure prominently in the UK’s post-Brexit trade calculations. Raab boasted the Cambodia visit was the first to the country by a British foreign secretary in

By Rahul Mishra

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Philippines: Aquino’s death marks another democratic turning point

With the passing of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, the country’s political future becomes even more uncertain in the run-up to an election next year. The former president passed away on 24 June, aged 61. His death comes as the Philippines grapples with

By Andrea Chloe Wong

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Sweet and sour: Taiwan’s pork and pineapple battles

In August, Taiwan will hold a referendum on whether to reinstate a ban on US pork containing the additive ractopamine. This could introduce a sour taste into otherwise positive Taiwan–US relations. But it’s not the only food-related political challenge on the menu. The reaction to China imposing

By Melissa Conley Tyler, Liam Gibson

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