In Asian media this week: Pakistan fears attack, India threatens “crushing blow”. Plus: China passes its first private-sector law; Trump needs a quick trade deal with Japan; Tariff plan: US wants to “reset world monetary order”; Singapore blocks foreign election posts; Bandung – when former colonies found a collective voice.

The stress lines between India and Pakistan grow deeper and wider, with Pakistan saying it fears an attack from India while India says its military has complete freedom to respond to a terrorist massacre in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Al Jazeera reported authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir had shut more than 1000 religious schools fearing an Indian reprisal.

Pakistan said it had credible evidence that India was planning a military strike, vowing to meet any aggression with a decisive response.

About 1.5 million people live near the line of control in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Indian Express newspaper, citing sources, quoted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying the nation was determined to deal a crushing blow to terrorism.

On 23 April, a day after the terrorist attack, India suspended a water treaty with Pakistan, halved its diplomatic mission in Islamabad, expelled Pakistani diplomats and closed a border crossing. Each country has also banned the other’s airlines from entering its airspace.

The terrorist slaughter took place in a meadow near Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir. On the afternoon of 22 April, about 250 people, most of them tourists, had gathered there. In a moving account, The Hindu reported a group of at least four terrorists picked out and killed 25 tourists, injuring 16 others. The paper said the victims were selected on the basis of their religion.

The terrorists also killed a pony-ride assistant who tried to protect the tourists.

In the past week, a ceasefire along the line of control has been repeatedly broken by small arms fire, with each country’s media accusing the other of being at fault.

The US, close to India under Modi, has played an ambiguous role. Many papers reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to his counterparts in both countries, urging them to de-escalate tensions and maintain peace.

But The Hindu said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and said America stood in solidarity with India and supported its right to defend itself.

A commentary in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said the two countries were back to doing what they did best – being on the brink of war.

“In Pakistan, the question being asked is whether or not there will be another scuffle, dogfights or more, with the ever-present fear of escalation and something bigger,” the article said. “In India, it seems the ask is for Pakistan to be taught a lesson and more.”

Beijing blocks provincial curbs to private enterprise

Beijing has underlined recent rhetorical support for the private sector by passing China’s first law focusing on promoting the private economy.

The law outlines the legal status of the private sector, stipulating that promoting the high-quality development of the private economy is a significant, long-term policy.

China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, said Beijing placed great emphasis on supporting the private sector to create a fairer, more dynamic business environment and tackle the concerns of private businesses.

“The law… covers such areas as fair competition, investment and financing promotion, scientific and technological innovation, regulatory guidance, service support, protection of rights and interests, and legal liabilities,” the paper said.

South China Morning Post said the law had been passed at a time when the government’s efforts to boost domestic demand and investment had gained new urgency. The country was searching for new sources of growth as the formerly reliable export sector came under pressure from America’s sky-high tariffs.

Drafting the law began last year and President Xi Jinping raised expectations in February when he assembled the country’s most prominent private entrepreneurs to rally the sector and seek its help in stabilising the economy.

SCMP noted the new law sought to protect private businesses for rampant profit-driven enforcement, in which law enforcement officers travelled to other provinces to collect fines.

A high-profile example was reported by the Zhejiang Daily in January. Enterprises in the cities of Ningbo and Wenzhou were targeted by officials from outside the province, trying to seize assets. Zhejiang officials had to recover frozen assets to protect the interests of local entrepreneurs, SCMP said.

The new law showed Beijing was determined to rein in local authorities, the paper said.

Tokyo to resist anti-China economic alliance

A quick trade deal with Japan is emerging as a test case for Donald Trump in his tariff wars, according to an analytical piece in The Japan Times.

The paper quotes Daisuke Kawai, an economic security specialist at the University of Tokyo, as saying Trump needs concessions from Tokyo to show he is a tough president.

“He needs to create a kind of example as soon as possible,” he said.

But Trump’s negotiations with Tokyo might be drawn out, as the government would be wary of risking a bad deal ahead of Upper House elections expected in July.

In another story, the paper says Tokyo would resist any US efforts to forge an economic alliance against Beijing – because of the importance of trade links with China.

About 20% of Japan’s commerce is with China, the paper says.

The US has not made a specific request to Japan to line up against China, but US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has spoken of reaching agreements with allies so “we can approach China as a group”.

Tokyo is worried that Trump’s tariffs could push Asian nations closer to China, destabilising regional security.

The paper quotes Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera as saying many Asian countries lined up with Japan and the US on China, but they are now feeling very uneasy about Trump’s tariffs.

Onodera wants to reinforce defence co-operation with the US. But he says: “More countries may distance themselves from the US and move closer to China – and that’s not an outcome Japan would wish for.”

Footnote: Japanese people do not believe in the value of the US-Japan Security Treaty. The Asahi Shimbun reports on a poll in which 77% of respondents do not think Washington would protect Japan. Some 24% say Japan should follow Washington’s wishes, but 68% want their country to be as independent as possible.

Pax Americana becomes Tax Americana

What is the plan behind Trump’s on-again, off-again, up-again, down-again tariffs? Former central banker Andrew Sheng sets it out: the administration wants to reset the dollar-denominated monetary and trading order.

Writing in the South China Morning Post, Sheng says the chaotic tariff war is a deadly serious attempt to tackle what Trump and his team see as the core issues of the dollar-dominated global monetary system.

Sheng, distinguished fellow at Hong Kong University’s Asia Global Institute, says the US feels victimised because it runs large current account and trade deficits, flowing from the strengthening dollar, as trading rivals devalue their currencies.

The administration’s strategy is spelled out in a recent essay by Stephen Miran, now chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“[The essay] envisions converting Pax Americana into Tax Americana,” Sheng says. “Users and holders of US dollars, especially allies, would be persuaded to pay user fees, essentially by switching their holdings into long-term securities, if they wish to continue enjoying military protection. Miran’s key weapons for bargaining include tariffs and sanctions.”

Sheng notes gold had long been accepted as a means of payment and store of value. But Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971 and the world entered the area of floating exchange rates.

This gave the US the luxury of not having to maintain fiscal discipline as the rest of the world wanted to hold US dollars – and thus came the post-1980s era of fiscal extravagance.

Proposals for reform include replacing the US dollar reserve currency with a multilaterally issued currency or using the IMF’s basket of reserve currencies.

The natural substitute, however, is not another artificially designed standard, but gold, the historical candidate. “Gold is the only form of currency that cannot be printed by governments or mined through algorithms,” Sheng says.

“If we cannot trust politicians, national governments or central bankers to manage our money, then a transparent gold market may be able to price fiat currencies that float against each other and against gold.

“Between American financial engineers and gold, it’s in gold I trust.”

Singapore to vote after cooling-off day

Singapore goes to the polls today (3 May) after a nine-day campaign buffered by a cooling-off day on Friday.

No campaigning was allowed. Candidates and parties had to stop all forms of promotion, in person or online. The Straits Times said this was to allow voters time to think about the issues without feeling overwhelmed.

Thursday night was a time for frenzied activity, with 11 rallies being held across the island.

The paper printed a long list of items banned at rallies, including firearms and ammunition, spear guns, explosives, machetes, stun guns, walking sticks with daggers, crossbows, flares, tear gas and canned drinks.

The only controversy arose early in the campaign period when two Malaysian politicians and one Australian person posted on Facebook, criticising Singapore’s handling of religious issues and urging people to vote along religious lines.

The government directed Meta to block access to the posts.

CNA (Channel News Asia) said it was against the law for foreigners to take part in election activities or publish online election advertising.

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Singaporeans might have different views about issues, but the country could not allow foreigners to exploit the differences.

He also raised concerns about other social media posts raising issues of race and religion.

Mixing politics and religion were unacceptable in Singapore, Wong said.

CNA also reported him as saying identity politics was dangerous.

“When one group jostles aggressively to assert its identity, others will organise and start to jostle back,” he said. “You can see how these play out in countries everywhere.”

Seventy years ago, a group of nations forged a landmark event in the struggle against colonialism: 29 Asian and African countries gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, to assert the voices of what we would now call the Global South.

An essay published by The Jakarta Post recalls that the Bandung Conference declared the future would no longer be dictated by colonial empires. The Bandung spirit echoed through the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The essay, by Yuyun Wahyuningrum, executive director of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, says the values of the Bandung spirit were non-alignment, anti-colonialism and peaceful co-existence.

“For the Bandung delegates, colonialism was itself the ultimate violation of human rights,” Wahyuningrum says. “Political independence was just the beginning. The real struggle was against the ongoing legacies of exploitation, cultural erasure and structural inequality.”

Bandung affirmed that human rights must encompass more than civil and political freedoms. Human rights also include economic justice, cultural identity and the right to resist oppression, she says.

But, in a cruel turn of history, many states that once resisted colonial domination now mirror its injustices. Myanmar is an example, but across Asia and Africa deep-rooted inequalities endure.

“The international human rights framework, which Bandung helped inspire, is under siege,” Wahyuningrum says.

A second essay in the paper says the Bandung conference was transformative. The article, by former Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, says: “Leaders of 29 nations in Asia and Africa came to Bandung with all the various problems and challenges facing them and yet they had wisdom and dared to change the world.”

Looking at the world now, he says, fragmentation, division and geopolitical competition have become deeper and wider.

The issue is how countries of the Global South (or “global majority”, to use his preferred label) respond to these challenges.

“The reality is that much of the world’s conflict occurs in the Global South,” Natalegawa says. “We need to get our house in order. Let’s begin with ourselves.”