While the world looks on with trepidation at regional wars in Israel and Ukraine, a far more dangerous global crisis is quietly building at the other end of Eurasia, along an island chain that has served as the front line for America’s national defence for endless decades. Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revitalised Continue reading »
China
What the West wants from China is not often what China wants for China. They live in a special fairyland where they believe they know what is best for China. Continue reading »
On January 13 this year, Taiwan, amid high hopes in the ruling party, held its quadrennial presidential/vice presidential/legislative election. It was expected to be a very consequential election. Taiwan’s future was said to be at stake. Post-election, the foreign media and Taiwan’s press alike proclaimed that the liberal, pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the Continue reading »
Australia wants to constrain China, but without tying itself to America’s own ambitions and all that might mean. The central strategic axis of the Indo-Pacific region is – and for the foreseeable future, will remain – bipolar: a competition for primacy between the US and China. And while Australia has chosen where it sits, most Continue reading »
In Asian media this week: Europe’s China business chief says conflict unavoidable. Plus: US lacks strategy for China confrontation; Japan’s new PM calls snap election; Junta’s election “census” a counter-insurgency ploy; America’s Gaza failure shakes confidence in rules-based order; Seoul has no answer for Pyongyang’s dirty campaign. China and the EU are shaping up for Continue reading »
Veteran Singapore envoy on what the West gets wrong about China, ASEAN as a bellwether region and why the US should prepare for No. 2 status. You’ve predicted that the geopolitical contest between the US and China is set to intensify and stretch beyond the next decade. However, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan just visited China Continue reading »
Moving to China has opened my eyes in a way I never expected. The stories I grew up hearing, the ones I accepted without much thought, started to unravel. One of the toughest things I’ve had to face is realising that the West, where I’ve spent most of my life, might not always be the Continue reading »
Much more than a cyclical adjustment, Beijing’s latest policy shift marks a milestone in the history of its economic management. Beijing’s larger-than-expected market rescue plan announced last week is extraordinary in every way. The policies, from interest rate cuts to special funding schemes for the stock market, are significant. But investors are particularly excited about Continue reading »
Ren Zeping’s almost frantic call one week ahead of Beijing’s dramatic loosening of monetary policy. Before the People’s Bank of China’s unusually bold, if not unprecedented, big bang last week to boost investor sentiments, the frustration with Beijing’s apparent lack of urgency in aiding the world’s second-largest economy grew increasingly apparent. One of the signs Continue reading »
China is in the middle of its third major deflationary episode in the past three decades. The country’s global footprint is now so large that uncertainty over the timing of its exit from the current episode is one of the most important questions in the global economy today. Prior episodes offer some useful guidance on Continue reading »