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China

Geopolitics

Trump Won Trade War 1.0 – Will He Now Rush a Deal?

Friday, September 20, 2019

While the US president may want to forge an agreement soon to boost his re-election hopes, Xi Jinping is in no rush.

Development

ASEAN’s Infrastructure Dilemma

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Japan-financed urban railway project in Ho Chi Minh City: ASEAN needs a collaborative and coordinated approach to infrastructure development

Geopolitics

Whose Rules-Based International Order is it Anyway?

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Attempts by "like-minded" Western allies to strengthen the global system will have limited impact if their aim is to assert liberal values rather than shape a new order.

Industry

The Driving Forces Behind China’s Agri-Food FDI

Thursday, August 15, 2019

China’s international agriculture investments represent more than a quest for food security.

Geopolitics

Holding Their Own? - China-Africa Relations Mature

Thursday, August 8, 2019

The rapid expansion of China-Africa economic ties led to questions about a new colonialist dependency. While concerns about debt and oversight persist, the relationship has evolved. Johannesburg-based African business expert Dianna Games argues that it is up to African countries to build the capacity to deal effectively with Beijing.

Geopolitics

Belt and Road in Southeast Asia: Inevitable Storms

Thursday, July 11, 2019

China recognizes that poor governance and lack of transparency of Belt and Road Initiative projects could undermine its strategic interests in Southeast Asia. While Beijing will continue to build economic cooperation networks in the region, China’s interests could collide with those of other major powers, leading to geopolitical storms, which ASEAN member states will have to weather, argues Xue Gong of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

Geopolitics

With Belt and Road Projects, Consider the China Risk

Thursday, July 11, 2019

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has been heralded as both the largest cooperative infrastructure programme in global history and an attempt by Beijing to achieve world domination. In reality, the opportunities and risks are more nuanced, writes George Abonyi, Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, at the Sasin School of Management of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

Geopolitics

Time for a European Response to China's Belt and Road

Thursday, July 11, 2019

In response to China's Belt and Road Initiative, European countries should develop their own infrastructure program for emerging Asia-Pacific economies.

Geopolitics

The Power of Three: How US-China-Japan Dynamics Shape Asia Pacific

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Japan could be the lynchpin the keeps US-China relations from going off the rails.

Economy

Splintering Global Supply Chains: Asia’s Worst Nightmare?

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Disruption, diversification...decoupling?: The fracturing of global supply chains is a major concern for Asian economies

Economy

G20 Alert: The Trade War Gets Existential

Thursday, June 13, 2019

The fallout from the US-China trade battle and the collateral geo-economic disruptions are threatening global economic stability. G20 members meeting in Japan this month need to address the risk of a crisis. The US and China must call off the trade dogs of war – and quickly, writes George Magnus, Research Associate at both the China Centre of Oxford University and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London.

Politics

How the Rules-Based International Order Took Root

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

The US and China differ in their perceptions of what a rules-based international order should be.

Economy

Could the US and China Have Avoided Escalating Their Trade War?

Thursday, June 6, 2019

The rise in trade tensions between the US and China may be due to the American side’s failure to appreciate the implications of China’s not being a rule-of-law country – that administrative action, not laws on the books, get things done in China, writes Zhiwu Chen, Director of the Asia Global Institute (AGI) and Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Geopolitics

Chinese Waves: The Limits to Beijing’s Influence in the South Pacific

Thursday, May 2, 2019

China’s engagement with the states of the South Pacific Ocean has accelerated in recent years. But while policymakers and academics in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific island states increasingly talk about China’s growing influence, Beijing actually operates in the region under a number of constraints and there are limits on the role it can play.

Economy

Challenges of Dispatch Work in China

Thursday, March 21, 2019

As China embraces the digital economy, subcontracting—the practice of using intermediaries to contract workers, whether through agencies or other multilayered contracting—is raising new challenges over legal protections and corporate responsibility, as well as labor unrest.

Security

Progress on a Nuclear-Free North Korea Stalled, Not Halted

Thursday, March 14, 2019

As the dust settles on the Hanoi summit, critics argue that the absence of an agreement between Trump and Kim is a sign that diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea has failed. But even without a roadmap to denuclearization, the summit promotes important goals in these early stages: dialogue, a continued freeze on nuclear testing, and hope for a gradual lifting of economic sanctions.

Geopolitics

What Is Xi Jinping’s Major Power Diplomacy?

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Since Xi Jinping ascended to the presidency, he has spearheaded a reorientation of China’s major power diplomacy. With China’s foreign policy in the spotlight during the annual meeting of its legislature, Yoshikazu Kato of the Asia Global Institute outlines his thoughts on what this diplomacy is and how it came about.

Population & Society

Reckoning with Graying Asia

Thursday, February 28, 2019

The Asia-Pacific population has been undergoing dramatic aging, which is transforming the region’s demographic landscape beyond recognition. The region is currently ill-equipped to meet this critical challenge, particularly due to a lack of sound and efficient pension systems.