East Asia Forum
East Asia Forum is an English-language international policy forum directed by Peter Drysdale and based at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.
East Asia's recent articles
6 June 2021
The politics of anti-Asian racism
The celebration of the Asian Heritage Month in May is marred by the fact that Asian communities around the world from theUnited States,Canada,EuropetoAustralia are experiencing a spike in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. While theslaying of Asian womenin Atlanta in March was the most violent of these crimes, much of the racism directed at Asians takes everyday forms physical violence, overt and covert discrimination in workplaces, racial slurs, spitting andmicro-aggressions.
5 May 2021
Clear skies over Asias new foreign investment landscape
Compounding the fallout of the USChina trade war, the global pandemic and recession have caused considerable speculation on the future of foreign investment and global value chains (GVCs). But though there is likely to be some permanent change, it will probably not be as great as politicians expect.
3 April 2021
Malign or benign? ChinaUS strategic competition under Biden
In late 2017 ChinaUS relations shifted dramatically when the Trump administration officially labelled China astrategic competitor. For various reasons the Democrats seem to have accepted this label. Many believe strategic competition will continue to define the relationship under the Biden administration, though its understanding of strategic competition may be quite different from the Trump administrations.
22 February 2021
China, Russia steal a vaccine diplomacy march
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about an unprecedented mobilisation of advanced biotechnology globally. Progress in developing, testing and deploying vaccines has proceeded with breathtaking speed. China-Russia collaboration is helping to get cheap and effective Covid-19 vaccines to the developing world.
9 February 2021
China does not like the coup in Myanmar
Since themilitary coup in Myanmaron 1 February 2021, there have been reports and allegations that China approves of or is able to spin the military takeover to its advantage. This is unlikely to be true.
12 January 2021
How will Biden's strategy on South Asia differ from Trump's?
US president-elect Joe Bidensforeign policywill be very different from that of President Donald Trump. Biden has vowed to bring back US global leadership, value international diplomacy, restore US alliances and promote democracy and human rights abroad. He intends to undo the dramatic and in his view deleterious changes that the Trump administration made to US foreign policy.
9 January 2021
Hong Kong's future now lies with China
The past year and a half has transformed Hong Kong. Following prolonged, intense and often violent protest in 2019, COVID-19 drove activists off the streets in early 2020. This years passage of the National Security Law (NSL) by Chinas National Peoples Congress marked a new political phase. Opposition figures were put on the back foot and the central authorities in Beijing became more engaged in the citys politics.
17 November 2020
Peter Drysdale and Yongjun Zhang. How Australia and China can begin the great defrost
Australia and China may find it helpful to look to Asian cooperation centred on ASEAN for the circuit-breaker needed to begin repair in their bilateral relationship.
24 October 2020
Securing an Asian NATO or destabilising Korea relations? (EAF Oct 15, 2020)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intended to meet his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on 7 October. But the visit was cancelled after US President Donald Trump contracted Covid-19.
28 May 2020
SHEILA SMITH. US pandemic politics spells trouble for its Asian partners (EAF 24.5.20)
The Trump administrations lack of interest in a global response to COVID-19, or even extending a helping hand to its allies and partners, is bringing home the possibility that US leadership may be gone for good. Beyond exposing a diminished American will to lead, the pandemic response is revealing a new reality that of US incompetence.