Asia
Economic diplomacy: Navigating Asia’s trade tangle and a NSW “step-up”
Finding RCEP
India might have spurned the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, but its parable of the blind men and the elephant still provides the best way of…
Beijing’s bad books: Australia can learn from Norway and South Korea
The latest complaints from China against Australia, neatly bundled into a series of 14 perceived disputes, makes painfully clear how ties between the two countries…
A firebrand cleric’s return boosts Islamist politics
The recurring puzzle as to whether Indonesia’s most divisive Muslim cleric, Habib Rizieq Shihab, leader of vigilante group Islam Defenders Front (FPI), would return to the country…
Putting the caste system in its place
Watchers of the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking might have missed it, but for Indian viewers attuned to what goes unsaid between the lines, there was a subtext to the…
Gauge-changing train is no game changer for China
Railways are a natural pillar of overland transport for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, given their large capacity. But there is an obstacle to getting direct services…
Why Russia will not return the Kuril Islands to Japan
The decades-old dispute between Russia and Japan over the status of the Kuril Islands is far from over. Tokyo, which refers to the islands as the Northern Territories, still…
End of the road for Hong Kong’s opposition camp?
For more than two decades, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers played a game rigged against them. On 11 November, they had finally had enough.
“We are facing a totally new…
Putting real Australian money on the table to help Indonesia
Australia is lending A$1.5 billion to Indonesia to help it get through the economic crisis unleashed by Covid-19. This is welcome news and another sign of Australia stepping up to…
India: Trolls from a Hindu nationalist fringe with a majority complex
A recent television commercial aired in India by jewellery brand Tanishq triggered an explosion of outrage among right-wing Hindu nationalist supporters in India, raising concerns…
Biden’s clean energy plan versus China’s green tech dominance
A man who has earned a reputation for compromise and dealmaking over his half-century in Washington, Joe Biden has also won the presidency by presenting himself as a national…