Asia
Malaysia election: coming of age
It has been 20 years since I spent the evening at former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s house after he was sacked by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. That night, I…
The India–China summit in Wuhan was no reset
The “informal summit” in Wuhan, China, between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping last month generated a wave of commentary in India,…
China is catching up to the US, except on this key measure
US Army General Robert Brown told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra this week that, on his last visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese military chiefs, he…
Mourning Cambodia’s press freedom
Tears flowed freely in the offices of The Phnom Penh Post on Monday. Some of Cambodia’s most hardened reporters embraced their colleagues as their faces crumpled.
Journalists…
Unexpected lessons on measuring power in Asia
If the number of skyscrapers is an indication of a city’s prestige, then Pyongyang’s 16 would seem to dwarf the mere two that are found in Auckland.
Power can be judged in…
Soft-power dressing: China’s moment in the US
Wearing the right dress can be the first step to success.
Pictures of an American teenage girl sporting a red Chinese cheongsam to her prom have gone viral and sparked…
Malaysia’s political treadmill
Not many people give Malaysia’s opposition a chance of ending the 13-election winning streak of the ruling Barisan Nasional party when the country goes to the polls on…
Trump–Kim summit: what’s in the venue?
The venue and date for the Donald Trump–Kim Jong-un summit have yet to be announced, but it appears likely to take place in late May or early June. Panmunjom, on the southern side…
The language of cross-strait tensions
The video, titled “God of War”, runs for almost four minutes and features the usual propaganda claims and military posturing expected from a video released by the China’s People’s…
Asia: jobs policy vs the machines
Concerns about the negative impact of technology on the labour market are not new.
As early as 1817, at the beginning of the first industrial revolution, economist David Ricardo…