Asia
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Infatuated with US politics, does the media remember the third-largest democracy in the world: Indonesia?
Americans will get to the ballot box in late 2024. Such is our infatuation with US politics that by Guy Fawkes’ night we’ll have absorbed enough minutia to know more about their electoral system than ours. Does anyone in the media remember Indonesia? Continue reading »
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Women on Death Row in Singapore: how gender discriminations create a ‘double punishment’
Women on death row in Singapore face a stark reality of isolation, harassment and intimidation. Singapore’s enthusiastic application of the death penalty, particularly, for minor drug offences, has recently garnered the spotlight after Singapore have executed at least 11 men since March 2022. Continue reading »
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Divisive China-threat politics deliver defeat in Taiwan
In 2019, President Tsai Ing-wen led the DPP to record-setting election victories in Taiwan by megaphoning the China-Threat. This same approach has crashed badly for the DPP in the recent local elections in what can only be read as a rebuke to US China baiting and a win for regional peace. Continue reading »
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Taiwan backs Chiang Kai-shek’s great grandson in push for peace with Beijing
Defeated in 1949 in its civil war against China’s pro-Communist forces, the Nationalist KMT, or Kuo Min-tang, party has had a victory. But it had to wait till last Sunday’s Taiwan mayoral elections, where it won 13 of Taiwan’s 23 district electorates. Continue reading »
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Taiwan voters consider President Tsai’s hostile relationship with China to be fool hardy
Those vested in the ‘the coming war with China’ may need to rethink. Continue reading »
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Taiwan reunification: US benefits from cross-straits divisions
Although the United States often expresses concerns over the possibility of Taiwan being reunified with its motherland by force, it claims to support consensual reunification. This, however, could not be further from the truth, and its own national interests dictate otherwise. It benefits enormously from cross-Straits divisions, and the last thing it wants to see Continue reading »
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The case of the wolf and the sheep in Hong Kong
Recently, a correspondent on Australia’s national broadcaster casually referred to Hong Kong as a “police state”. This ignores that the courts operate under common law rules. The role of the judge is key. They are not mouth-pieces of the central government. In HKSAR v Lai Man-ling & 4 Others, Hong Kong’s image overseas has been Continue reading »
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Anwar new PM – but how long will new Malaysian Government survive?
“Yah, man … but how long laaa?” A Malaysian friend told me yesterday when I asked him about the news that Anwar Ibrahim had been sworn in as Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister. Continue reading »
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Reconstructing China’s role in regional security
Today the possibility of consolidating an inclusive regional architecture for comprehensive security in the Asia Pacific has become almost inconceivable. This is because on-going China–US tension appears to have excluded that option. Continue reading »
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Rising Sino-U.S. tensions may prompt Japan to review its China policy
With Chinese President Xi Jinping securing an unprecedented third term in power, fears are mounting that Sino-U.S. tensions may escalate further over Taiwan and economic security, forcing Japan to review its policies regarding Beijing. Continue reading »
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Taiwan endgames
The term endgame was originally applied to the final stages of a multifaceted matching of minds in the likes of chess or bridge. The term has also been widely used in politics to introduce and debate outcome investigations, as in, the Cold War endgame, the globalisation endgame and the Ukraine War endgame. This article considers Continue reading »
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G20 forecast: Bleak outlook, chances of thunder
It’s the meeting season in Indonesia, but the chances of viable offspring are slim. Too much hate, too little harmony. That’s bad news for all. Continue reading »
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The battle over development and democracy in the South Pacific
United States-Australian policy toward China demonstrates an increasing tension over what development and democracy means for people of the South Pacific. There is wide agreement that over the last forty years China has been exemplary for its rate of growth. Until relatively recently, this favourable assessment has been made by linking growth with development and Continue reading »
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What about the Taiwanese?
What you think of the story in the Indo-Pacific, connecting the US, Australia, China and Taiwan, depends on how you start telling it. Try the top line of both international human rights covenants: on civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights, respectively. “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of Continue reading »
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Asian Media – Rule of law declining internationally
In Asian media this week: Cambodia retains sorry legal status Continue reading »
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Sex, drugs and confusion: Sharia law in Bali?
Bali tourism is slowly picking up as Covid apparently retreats. The new threats are laws on drugs, religion and sex. Continue reading »
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Central Asia is crucial in 2022: Is Russia out, and is China (still) in?
The former Soviet states have been in the spotlight of international attention this year starting with the January unrest in Kazakhstan, Russian invasion of Ukraine, renewed hostilities over territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and border clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Here are the latest developments in a Central Asian region of increasing geostrategic importance. Continue reading »
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National Endowment for Democracy supports US aggression in Taiwan
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) does not have the democratic rights of the people in the 100 plus countries in which it operates at heart. It is solely interested in the maintenance of US power. Continue reading »
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In Asian media this week – Xi’s China narrative ‘largely true’
In Asian media this week: different views on what Xi said – and did not say – in his national party congress report. Continue reading »
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COVID-19 border policies strengthen Japan’s Insular mindset
From April to August 2020, Japan implemented a re-entry ban for all foreign nationals, including permanent residents, with some exceptions. This came as a shock to many who considered Japan ‘home’ since they found themselves either trapped outside the country or unable to leave to see sick family members or attend funerals. Continue reading »
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Bali Bombings: The blasts that blew neighbours apart
The Bali bombings of two decades ago, remembered with anger and sadness, did much more than kill 202 partygoers, wound 209 and scar families for years. The blasts also ripped apart an Indonesia-Australia relationship that has now slumped into indifference. Continue reading »
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Asian Media – Chinese car makers go electric
In Asian media this week, new child sex abuse allegations against Timor’s Bishop Belo. Plus: India removes abortion rights discrimination; Facebook complicit in Rohingya ethnic cleansing; Chinese carmaker buys into Aston Martin; North Korea fires missile over Japan; Court’s arithmetic leaves Prayut in power; and Bongbong’s weekend getaway goes viral Continue reading »
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Indonesia suppresses data on critically endangered Orangutan habitat threats
Outsiders doing business in Indonesia are urged to be polite and follow cultural norms. That also goes for academics, and the ones in this story have been exemplars of courtesy. But that hasn’t stopped their findings from getting rubbished and motives trashed. Continue reading »
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Death penalty: Singapore’s ongoing killing spree
Singapore continues to risk its reputation as leader in arbitration in the region through its use of the death penalty, primarily, for minor drug offences. This goes against the overwhelming global trend towards abolition of the death penalty and tarnishes Singapore’s reputation as a jurisdiction committed to upholding fair trial guarantees. Continue reading »
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Whitewashing at Shinzo Abe’s state funeral
Be careful who you praise and the degree of zeal you do it with. The slain Shinzo Abe, shot dead in Nara on July 8, towered over Japanese politics. In doing so, he cast a lengthy shadow. In death, this shadow continues to grow ever more darkly. Continue reading »
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Dealing with the ‘China threat’: An Asian perspective
Forcing Asian countries to choose between the USA and China is unlikely to work. Even close Asian allies of the US have shown that they prefer to go their own way in geopolitics. Continue reading »
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A feast of new reading outside the grip of corporate Western media: Part 2 – Asia
Australian mainstream media is generally lacking in coverage of Asia, with occasional fly-in-fly-out-shock-horror or dependence on Reuters or AUKUSWORLD news sources. This isn’t consistent with any claim to be an advanced member of our region. We can however turn to local newspapers in the region. Continue reading »
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Asian Media this week, 24 September
In Asian media this week, Biden makes the Taiwan Strait more dangerous. Plus: Myanmar people flee tattered economy; political role key to Xi’s anti-corruption drive; regional grouping with global heft; AUKUS and longing for Western domination; Korea looks beyond K-pop’s success Continue reading »
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America’s muddled Taiwan policy
In early August, U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced she planned to make a trip to Taiwan to give it moral encouragement at a time of tense relations with China. She would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan since 1997, when Speaker Newt Gingrich made the trip. Continue reading »
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Australia and Southeast Asia: Australia needs a new plan?
At a time when Australia needs an innovative rethinking of its policies towards Southeast Asia, this will not be delivered by the recently announced Defence Strategic Review. Continue reading »