Asia
The public judgment of South Korea’s Covid-19 response
Compared to many countries, South Korea has taken aggressive measures to address the outbreak of Covid-19. Most notable is its incredibly widespread testing: as of the most recent…
In the shadow of a pandemic, political calamity grips Afghanistan
The coronavirus pandemic has been dominating international news and monopolising the time of governments across the world as they scramble to respond and prepare. In the midst of…
Economic diplomacy: Fighting global pandemics from the G20 to ASEAN
Digital mates
The online summit between the leaders of Singapore and Australia on Monday didn’t get much attention amid a stock market meltdown and tensions within Australia’s…
Covid-19: Indonesia’s crises can severely reverberate on neighbours
To date Indonesia has 514 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and growing. This may not sound particularly alarming, given Australia had 1396 according to the most recent figures, but…
Philippines: Covid-19 will devastate the poor
Flaviano Villanueva was in tears last Thursday. It was day five of the “enhanced community quarantine” in Metro Manila, where the priest runs a homeless centre. The sprawling…
In India, praying the Covid away
Crises have a way of shining a penetrating light and exposing the fissures in a society – or conversely, the exact nature of what holds it together. It is something we are seeing…
Commentary
China is rewriting coronavirus history and nobody will stop it
In an opinion piece published in the Nikkei Asian Review, Natasha Kassam argues that China has leapt on the opportunity to shape the global narrative about its response to…
Coronavirus and the Hong Kong protest movement
For authorities in both Hong Kong and in Beijing, there must be, in some circles, something of a sense of relief. The pro-democracy protests that defined 2019 had become a deadly…
How people power has flattened the Covid curve in Hong Kong
The first half of March saw Hong Kong people’s attempt in bringing the city’s life back to normal amid the coronavirus scare. There are more people out in the streets, mostly…
Is Singapore feeling safe enough to go to the polls?
As news of a global pandemic dominated headlines and pushed most other news off the agenda, another breaking news bomb was casually dropped in Singapore on 13 March: the release…