2022-09-21 00:00
Author: Hiroshi Ono, Hitotsubashi University
A city clerk in the western prefecture of Yamaguchi carries a floppy disk containing account information for 463 residents to a local bank. He ha… Read More
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East Asia Forum Blog
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Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
2022-09-20 12:00
Author: Passant Mamdouh Ridwan, Fudan University
China’s growing influence in the global technological market reflects Beijing’s ambition to be a leading player in digital techno… Read More
2022-09-20 00:00
Author: Timur Dadabaev, University of Tsukuba
Uzbekistan chaired the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Samarkand on 15–16… Read More
2022-09-19 12:00
Author: Yu Yongding, CASS
Twenty-five years ago, the Asian Financial Crisis set back the economic progress made by East Asian countries by years, if not decades. The crisis was triggered by… Read More
2022-09-19 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has put priority on mending the US-South Korea alliance, rectifying the nadir in Seoul’s relationship with Tokyo, and… Read More
2022-09-18 12:00
Author: Karl Friedhoff, CCGA
On the eve of his victory in South Korea’s presidential election, President Yoon Suk-yeol promised to unite a divided country. That was always unlikely to… Read More
2022-09-17 12:00
Author: V Sridhar, IIIT Bangalore
Data protection regulation in India has recently faced several setbacks. The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced to India’s lower house on 11… Read More
2022-09-17 00:00
Author: Ulv Hanssen, Soka University
Twenty years have passed since North Korea officially admitted to abducting Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Since this admission, Japan–N… Read More
2022-09-16 12:00
Authors: Narayanan (Hari) Gopalan Lakshmi and Yves Tiberghien, UBC
Somewhat surprisingly, India took ten days to comment on US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to… Read More
2022-09-16 00:00
Author: Jun Arima, University of Tokyo
The Russia–Ukraine War is a reminder of the vital importance of a low-cost, stable supply of energy and the impact of geopolitics on securing it… Read More
2022-09-15 12:00
Author: Masahiko Takeda, ANU
In thinking about Japan’s strategic economic policy choices, it is useful to take a dispassionate look at where the Japanese economy stands right now. Japa… Read More
2022-09-15 00:00
Authors: Mendee Jargalsaikhan, Ariunbold Tsetsenkhuu and Munkhtulga Batmunkh, Institute for Strategic Studies of Mongolia
Like many of Russia’s neighbours, the war in Ukraine complicat… Read More
2022-09-14 12:00
Authors: John H Breen, Dublin and Jürgen Haacke, LSE
The incoming UK prime minister faces a challenging geopolitical landscape as London looks to balance closer alignment with Washingt… Read More
2022-09-14 00:00
Author: Paul Irwin Crookes, Oxford University
The latest White Paper on Taiwan published by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in August 2022 exposes the intractable is… Read More
2022-09-13 12:00
Author: Vannarith Chheang, NTU
Cambodia’s foreign policy is largely shaped by the worldview of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has more than four decades of practical experience in diploma… Read More
2022-09-13 00:00
Author: Andrew Levidis, ANU
Until he was assassinated during a last-minute campaign stop in the western Japanese city of Nara on 8 July 2022, Shinzo Abe — Japan’s longest serving… Read More
2022-09-12 12:00
Author: B R Deepak, JNU
The rise of China triggered a regional power shift that has been felt across East Asia and into the Himalayas. As China changes the status quo of the Indo-Pacific, it… Read More
2022-09-12 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
It is fair to say that expectations for the prime ministership of Liz Truss are not Himalayan in dimension. Having been placed a distant third in the first round… Read More
2022-09-11 12:00
Author: L Alan Winters, University of Sussex
Despite initiating the largest change in trade policy in 50 years — leaving the European Union — the UK government still has no trade… Read More
2022-09-11 00:00
Author: Ken Heydon, LSE
As the new UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss intends to designate China as a ‘threat’ rather than simply a ‘systemic competitor’. Her designation i… Read More
2022-09-10 12:00
Author: Xunpeng Shi, UTS
With energy prices at historically high levels, all eyes are on governments. Disruptions in energy supply chains due to the war in Ukraine have prompted countries to… Read More
2022-09-10 00:00
Author: Kei Koga, NTU
Japan’s vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) is nearing an inflection point. The government is faced with a choice on whether to shift its traditional s… Read More
2022-09-09 12:00
Author: Masaya Inoue, Keio University
Tensions are rising in the Taiwan Strait. In recent years, many developed nations have become concerned over China’s military expansion. The Russi… Read More
2022-09-09 00:00
Author: Gordon Feller, Wilson Center
Mongolia’s dependence on mining has intensified in recent decades. Following the discovery of major coal deposits and gold-copper ore in the early… Read More
2022-09-08 12:00
Author: Chansambath Bong, Asian Vision Institute
Cambodia’s ASEAN diplomacy shone brightly on the international stage in July 2022. Against the backdrop of the Russia–Ukraine war… Read More
2022-09-08 00:00
Author: Shujiro Urata, ERIA
The world faces unprecedented and difficult challenges, including US–China rivalry, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change a… Read More
2022-09-07 12:00
Author: William Case, Nottingham University Malaysia
For nearly half a century, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) imposed single-party dominance in Malaysia. UMNO’s intern… Read More
2022-09-07 00:00
Author: Ronald May, ANU
Elections for Papua New Guinea’s eleventh national parliament took place over three weeks in July 2022. With 99 of the 118 seats declared, including seven new e… Read More
2022-09-06 12:00
Author: Sajjad Ashraf, Singapore
Pakistan celebrated 75 years of independence in August 2022. But the past few decades have been a mixed bag for the general populace, who are still waiting f… Read More
2022-09-06 00:00
Author: Rana Mitter, Oxford
On 5 September 2022, members of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party chose the next prime minister. Liz Truss defeated her rival Rishi Sunak in a vote of… Read More
2022-09-05 12:00
Author: Abdul Rahman Yaacob, ANU
Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base — a facility in the Gulf of Thailand — has in recent years been the subject of interest from major powers compet… Read More
2022-09-05 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
Japan ‘crossed the Rubicon’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Unlike eight years ago when Russia annexed Crimea, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida… Read More
2022-09-05 00:00
Author: Frank Jotzo, ANU
Energy is high on the G20 agenda. The need to cut carbon emissions quickly and sharply is becoming increasingly urgent. Fortunately, it is becoming clearer how the g… Read More
2022-09-04 12:00
Author: Yoshihide Soeya, Keio University
As leader of the dovish faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kōchikai, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida claims that his disposition in… Read More
2022-09-04 00:00
Author: Sheila A Smith, Council on Foreign Relations
Japan has gone all-in with the Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The strategic consequences for Tokyo are considera… Read More
2022-09-03 12:00
Author: Jose Ma Luis Montesclaros, NTU
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently lauded India’s food subsidies for their role in helping minimise the impacts of COVID-19 on food a… Read More
2022-09-03 00:00
Author: Abdulkader Sinno, Indiana University
When the school year began in Afghanistan in March 2022, journalists were poised to cover the return of girls to secondary education. Taliban lea… Read More
2022-09-02 12:00
Author: Heejin Lee, Yonsei University
The US–China technology rivalry became overt when a dispute erupted over 5G and Huawei after Washington designated Huawei as an embargoed company… Read More
2022-09-02 00:00
Author: Theresa Meki, ANU
Papua New Guinea (PNG) held its 11th national election in July 2022. There were 3619 candidates, of which less than 5 per cent (159) were women. Only two of these w… Read More
2022-09-01 12:00
Author: Paul Chambers, Naresuan University
The judicial suspension of prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on 24 August 2022 catapulted his ‘acting’ successor and former commander, G… Read More
2022-09-01 00:00
Author: Yasuo Takao, Curtin University
Japan’s House of Councillors (upper house) election was held on 10 July 2022, placing 125 of the country’s 284 upper house seats up for gra… Read More
2022-08-31 12:00
Author: Kevin Nielsen M Agojo, CityU
During the regime of former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine National Police (PNP) played an instrumental role as ‘chief execu… Read More
2022-08-31 00:00
Author: Anyu Lee, Sichuan University and Fujian Li, China Foreign Affairs University
As countries sought quick access to medical devices during the COVID-19 pandemic, they ran into roadblock… Read More
2022-08-30 12:00
Author: Eduardo Pedrosa, PECC
Before COVID-19 struck, there were warnings that the world was underprepared for a global pandemic. Since then, numerous reports have noted what needs to be don… Read More
2022-08-30 00:00
Author: Evan A Laksmana, NUS
China is subjecting Indonesia to maritime grey zone tactics — competitive acts between states short of all-out warfare — in the North Natuna Sea. Chi… Read More
2022-08-29 12:00
Author: Melissa Conley Tyler, AP4D
In his analysis of the early days of the Albanese Government, Allan Gyngell noted significant change in the Australian government’s approach to forei… Read More
2022-08-29 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
Just as all national politics is local, all international politics is domestic. The intrusion of the domestic onto the international stage gets a bad rap —… Read More
2022-08-28 12:00
Author: Shafiah F Muhibat, CSIS Indonesia
When Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited Ukraine and Russia in June 2022, he made international headlines. Some applauded him as the first Asia… Read More
2022-08-27 12:00
Authors: Richard A Bitzinger, RSIS and Kenneth Boutin, Canberra
Russia’s importance as an arms supplier to Asian states is likely to decline in the short term due to export constraints… Read More
2022-08-27 00:00
Author: Prem Singh Gill, Thammasat University
Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades. But foreign land ownership has long been restricte… Read More
2022-08-26 12:00
Authors: Demas Nauvarian and Putu Shangrina Pramudia, CSGS
On 26 July 2022, Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in China. The meeting… Read More
2022-08-26 00:00
Author: Zhiqun Zhu, Bucknell University
US–China competition is a defining challenge of the present. Much attention has focussed on the behaviour of these two great powers and their im… Read More
2022-08-25 12:00
Author: Paul Teng, NTU
The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the Russia–Ukraine conflict have exacerbated global food insecurity. The current crisis has highlighted the reliance of… Read More
2022-08-25 00:00
Laos faces unprecedented financial difficulties, including US$14.5 billion worth of public and publicly guaranteed debt — around half of which is owed to China. But unlike Sri Lanka, t… Read More
2022-08-24 12:00
Author: Albert Jehoshua Rapha, Diponegoro University
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has experienced exponential advancement and widespread deployment globally since its initial expl… Read More
2022-08-24 00:00
Author: Kati Suominen, Nextrade Group
East Asia is in the midst of a historic e-commerce boom. Online transactions of goods and services grew rapidly during COVID-19 lockdowns, at 58 per cen… Read More
2022-08-23 12:00
Author: Stephen Howes, ANU
Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape achieved a landslide victory in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) 2022 general election. Marape and his PANGU party post… Read More
2022-08-23 00:00
Author: James Gannon, JCIE
COVID-19 saw the stunning failure of wealthy countries to adequately aid their struggling neighbours, allowing a chasm to open between haves and have-notes in term… Read More
2022-08-22 12:00
Author: Cameron Hill, ANU
As a student of Paul Keating, Treasurer Jim Chalmers would be aware of the prominence of ‘lever’ analogies in the former Australian prime minister&rsquo&hell…Read More
2022-08-22 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
Taiwan’s status as a potential trigger point for conflict amid escalating strategic competition between the United States and China has only been confirmed… Read More
2022-08-21 12:00
Author: Sourabh Gupta, Institute for China-America Studies
Seventy-five years ago this July, the US diplomat George Kennan published his seminal essay in Foreign Affairs introducin… Read More
2022-08-20 12:00
Author: Kevin Chen, NUS
Since its launch at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in June 2022, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) has been met with both interest and s… Read More
2022-08-20 00:00
Author: Qingjiang Kong, CUPL
Since the United States launched an unprecedented trade war against China in 2018, the US–China relationship has soured at an alarming rate. Not even the s… Read More
2022-08-19 12:00
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
The challenges of the 21st century are global and existential — climate change, pandemics, food insecurity and nuclear war. G… Read More
2022-08-19 00:00
Author: Rizky Alif Alvian, Universitas Gadjah Mada
As the threat of climate change intensifies in Indonesia, radical activists are weaponising the climate crisis to gain support for their ca… Read More
2022-08-18 12:00
Author: Faizal Bin Yahya, NUS
Business digitalisation accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitalisation provides e-commerce platforms with constant market presence and eternal trading… Read More
2022-08-18 00:00
Author: Nischal Dhungel, NIPoRe
The International Monetary Fund’s recent World Economic Outlook report paints a bleak economic future. It has downgraded global growth predictions from… Read More
2022-08-17 12:00
Authors: Darmawan Prasetya and Eka Afrina, The Prakarsa Centre for Welfare Studies
In July 2022, the Indonesian government introduced the Standard Inpatient Class (KRIS) system in seve… Read More
2022-08-17 00:00
Author: Jeremy Paltiel, Carleton University
After a tumultuous period, Sino–Canadian relations have settled into a ‘new normal’. In September 2021, Washington dropped the e… Read More
2022-08-16 12:00
Author: Rena Sasaki, Georgetown University
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is the first Japanese leader to attend a NATO summit meeting. With Chinese and North Korean military expansio… Read More
2022-08-16 00:00
Author: Loro Horta, Dili
In June 2022, several media reports announced that China was opening a military base at Cambodia’s Ream naval base located on the southern tip of Cambodia clos… Read More
2022-08-15 12:00
Author: Parul Bakshi, JNU
The urgent global need to meet climate ambitions, growing uncertainty about securing vital energy resources due to the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict and the… Read More
2022-08-15 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
Name the region: a group of internally diverse states, lying across strategically significant maritime passages, whose cultures and political systems have been p… Read More
2022-08-14 12:00
Authors: Anna Powles, Massey University and Joanne Wallis, University of Adelaide
In the recently agreed 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, and before that the 2018 Boe Declaratio… Read More
2022-08-13 12:00
Author: Kaush Arha, Purdue University
The US–Japan Economic Policy Consultative Meeting convened in July 2022 in Washington DC. US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio… Read More
2022-08-13 00:00
Author: Troy Lee-Brown, UWA
The year 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the strategic partnership between ASEAN and India, but there are new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation… Read More
2022-08-12 12:00
Author: Gunther Schnabl, Leipzig University
Inflation rates have risen far above the targets of many central banks around the world, reaching 9.1 per cent in the United States and 8.6 per ce… Read More
2022-08-12 00:00
Author: Venkatachalam Anbumozhi, ERIA
India is the world’s second largest coal importer. It also imports 80 per cent of its crude oil and 45 per cent of natural gas demands. US$1 billi… Read More
2022-08-11 12:00
Author: Doug Strub, National Bureau of Asia Research
The Biden administration’s launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) negotiations signals renewed US economic engagement… Read More
2022-08-11 00:00
Authors: Zhijie Ding, Columbia University and Wanjun Zhao, UC Berkeley
In September 2021, China applied for membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partne… Read More
2022-08-10 12:00
Author: Xirui Li, NTU
Cross-border data flows have been a priority on the G20 agenda since 2019. This year is no exception. Indonesia, which holds the G20 Presidency in 2022, has promised to… Read More
2022-08-10 00:00
Author: Toshiro Nishizawa, University of Tokyo
Affordability matters for government debt because the burden is eventually passed onto current and future taxpayers through tax hikes or inflat… Read More
2022-08-09 12:00
Author: Sunayana Sasmal and Petros C Mavroidis
Trade policy and national security policy are interconnected. The World Trade Organisation (WTO), which replaced the General Agreement on Tarif… Read More
2022-08-09 00:00
Author: Richard Katz, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
Making Japan a start-up nation again, as in the Sony and Honda days, was a major goal of Prime Minister Fumio Kishi… Read More
2022-08-08 12:00
Authors: Swaran Singh and Yves Tiberghien, UBC
There is plenty of blame to go around for the apparent fourth Taiwan Straits crisis of August 2022. Intensely partisan US politics have taken t… Read More
2022-08-08 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
If there is a cliché that every observer of India strives — and usually fails — to avoid, it is Jawarhalal Nehru’s famous ‘tryst w… Read More
2022-08-07 12:00
Authors: Peter Drysdale and Charlie Barnes, ANU
India’s population of almost 1.4 billion, its economic progress and its geopolitical appeal as a balance to China’s power in Asia… Read More
2022-08-06 12:00
Author: Tadashi Iwami, Hokkaido University
On 19 April 2022, the governments of China and the Solomon Islands signed a security agreement. The Solomon Islands was the first Pacific island co… Read More
2022-08-06 00:00
Author: Maria Alynna Corinne M. Carlos, University of the Philippines
The South China Sea (SCS) is highly prized for its economic and strategic value. Competing claims over the maritime area… Read More
2022-08-05 12:00
Author: Ann Marie Murphy, Seton Hall University
To many Americans who view Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an unprovoked war that must be opposed, Indonesia’s high levels of publ… Read More
2022-08-05 00:00
Author: Upamanyu Basu, NUJS
The death of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is a shocking loss for Japan. But Japanese democracy has remained strong, with voters turning up for the Up… Read More
2022-08-04 12:00
Author: Chengxin Pan, University of Macau
When both US Democrats and Republicans think something is a good idea, it is safe to bet their rare agreement is on countering China. The latest bip… Read More
2022-08-04 00:00
Authors: Kailing Xie, University of Birmingham and Ying Huang, University of York
Between 24 December 2021 and 22 January 2022, China’s Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights an… Read More
2022-08-03 12:00
Author: Sae Shimauchi, Tokyo Metropolitan University
In Japan, funding for education is largely considered the responsibility of the family. This viewpoint was established by the revision of… Read More
2022-08-03 00:00
Author: Hongzhou Zhang, RSIS and Genevieve Donnellon-May, University of Oxford
Global fish stocks are facing a crisis, with nearly all classified as either fully exploited, overexploited or… Read More
2022-08-02 12:00
Authors: Mason Richey, HUFS and Michael Reiterer, Brussels School of Governance
As a major regional power and key US ally, Japan has a special role in influencing security and economic outco… Read More
2022-08-02 00:00
Authors: Francesco Pastore, Vanvitelli University and Jie Chen, Jiangsu University
Deciding whether to pursue academic or vocational education is not easy. Education costs time and money, an… Read More
2022-08-01 12:00
Authors: Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, ECIPE and Robin Baker, LSE
Sanctions and embargoes are precarious policy tools that can lead to inadvertent consequences without careful targeting, planning and… Read More
2022-08-01 02:00
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
You could forgive Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for wondering whether the election he won in May 2022 was a good one to lose. Resurgent inflation an… Read More
2022-07-31 12:00
Author: Allan Gyngell, ANU
Australian observers seem to think that the Albanese government’s foreign and national security policies will not differ much from those of its predecessor… Read More
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