Programs & Projects

The North Asia Program

The China and East Asia Program

The China and East Asia Program conducts research on the politics and foreign policy of China and its immediate neighbours in Northeast Asia: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and the Korean peninsula. The program is renowned for its particular focus on China’s domestic politics and how this helps to shape its external behaviour. From 2020, the Institute’s extensive research on Southeast Asia – including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Myanmar – is now incorporated in a dedicated Southeast Asia Program. Each Program also commissions work by other scholars on the broader region. To complement their written research, Lowy Institute experts hold a robust series of dialogues and events on the politics of the region, independently and in partnership with other organisations.

Photo: Jung Yeon-Je-Pool/Getty Images

Experts
Latest publications
News and media
China: Economic war and the humbling of multinationals
'I really worry about China. I am not sure that in the end they want any of us to win', confided GE boss Jeff Immelt to a group of fellow multinational business-people dining in…
China links: PLA compounds, shale gas, PR blunders, anti-monopoly and more
Life inside Beijing's secretive PLA compounds. China's National Energy Administration halves it 2020 shale gas output target. Chinese social media is helping to improve local…
China links: Anti-graft, Abe-Xi, patriotism, rule of law, Islam, Africa, oil rigs and more
Rumours are flying that former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda may have met Chinese President Xi Jinping on a secret visit to China. Meanwhile, Japan and China are…
China links: Zhou Yongkang, Ethiopia, Japan, climate change, KFC, and more
Fairfax's former China correspondent John Garnaut tweets about the detention of Zhou Yongkang: And here's why the detention of Zhou matters. The NY Times has an infographic…
The limits of Indonesia's anti-corruption campaign
'Fight corruption!' A Corruption Eradication Commission event in Bandung in 2009. (Flickr/Ikhlasul Amal.) Indonesia's reputation for corruption in not in doubt: it comes 114th…
China: Climate wrecker or climate leader?
Lisa Williams is author of the new Lowy Institute Analysis, China's Climate Change Policies: Actors and Drivers. The views expressed here are her own and do not reflect the views…
China links: Village elections, cheese, fatty Kim the Third, Afghanistan, HYSY 981 and more
Cheng Li on Xi Jinping's friends from his formative years (now in his inner circle). A primer on Chinese village elections. Policy insiders are concerned that China's ambitious…
Indonesia: Defence and foreign policy implications of a Jokowi presidency
Indonesia's General Elections Commission (KPU) is tomorrow likely to confirm a victory by Joko ('Jokowi') Widodo over presidential rival Prabowo Subianto by a margin of somewhere…
The BRICS Bank and China's growing web of development financing
The news today is that the establishment of a BRICS Bank has (finally) been confirmed. It is officially called the New Development Bank. Headquartered in Shanghai, the US$100…
China links: Rascals, Abbott, SOEs, legal reform, World War II and more
Australia is a nation once 'roamed by rascals and outlaws', says the Global Times. Well, at least Aussies are only regular rascals and not the 'mincing' variety seen in the US…