Asia
Japan’s golden opportunity
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s overtures to China, hostility to the US and lavish praise of Japan have certainly raised some eyebrows. Yet, as surprising as his…
The Korea Peninsula: Time to recognise the new nuclear status quo
After North Korea’s latest nuclear test, it is a clear a new status quo is evolving on the Korean Peninsula. According to North Korean sources, the nuclear detonation on 9…
Economic diplomacy brief: Train wars, ANZ exit, ASEAN talks, trade trouble, Bahasa lessons and more
Diplomacy hits the rails
Second-track gatherings of foreign policy experts to discuss sensitive issues are all the rage across Asia, but they are in danger of being run down by…
PLA Air Force unveils its pride and joy
Yesterday at the Zhuhai Air Show, China's air force officially unveiled its worst-kept secret, the J-20 stealth fighter.
What is China hoping to achieve by showing off this new…
Commentary
Dominoes in the South China Sea
First the Philippines, now Malaysia is being drawn deeper into China's orbit.
Are dominoes teetering again in Southeast Asia? The limitations of that metaphor were clear in the…
China drives Australia and Indonesia into a closer embrace
Australia holds so-called 2+2 meetings of foreign and defence ministers with a steadily expanding number of nations, Germany having joined the A-list last September. Getting…
Law of the sea: Activist judges open a pandora's box
The recent judgement by the Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the nature of the features in the South China…
Why Indonesian extremists are gaining ground
If anyone wonders why Indonesia has been ineffective in curbing extremism, the anti-Ahok campaign provides an object lesson. In the name of demanding that the Jakarta governor be…
Dien Bien Phu: Digging into history
The French strong-points at Dien Bien Phu in northwest Vietnam are falling again. Not, as in 1954, to Viet-Minh attacks, but rather to the bulldozers of progress.
The entrenched …
What's next for Xi Jinping?
There has been considerable speculation about whether Chinese President (and newly annointed 'core' leader) Xi Jinping might be secretly planning to extend his time in…