Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Denghua Zhang, ANU
China has hunted globally for land-based mineral deposits to fuel its economic development since the 1990s. Now, Beijing is devoting growing attention to seabed mining. As China’s Five-Year Plan on Mineral Resources (2016–2020) states, ‘China will actively participate in international surveys on deep sea mining and accelerate the exploration and development of ocean minerals’. Read more…
Author: Tristan Kenderdine, Future Risk
Trade policy may be easy to change quickly, but trade practice is institutionally sticky. The reality of bilateral trade is not the simple fungibility of share or futures markets but the deep structural issues: port logistics, shipping and transport, commodities contracts and productive capacity lagging supply and demand factors. Despite Beijing’s intent to impose tariffs on a range of agricultural products including soy and sorghum from early July 2018, institutional reform in China’s trade policy is opening China’s market to more agricultural commodity imports. Read more…
Author: Tuan N Pham, Yokosuka
In recent weeks, there have been several commentaries reporting a temporary new norm in the South China Sea (SCS) — realpolitik’s triumph over moralpolitik and the rapid decline of regional US soft power. But current developments suggest otherwise. Years of ill-advised US acquiescence and accommodation (strategic patience and wishful thinking) in the SCS appear to be over for now. Read more…
Authors: Richa Sekhani, ICRIER and Deepanshu Mohan, OP Jindal Global University
Southeast Asia is experiencing rapid urbanisation, and with it comes more and more people who are absorbed into the unregulated, informal sectors of the economy. In Cambodia, more than 95 per cent of the aggregate labour force is employed in unregulated, informal activities such as street vending, construction and transport. Read more…
Author: Scott Moore, University of Pennsylvania
China is often thought of as a country that suppresses internal conflicts, usually to great effect. But there are a number of notable exceptions and, of these, conflicts over water are perhaps the most intriguing. While China is by some definitions water-scarce, its domestic and international water conflicts are driven not by scarcity per se but by the impact of China’s rampant economic growth. Read more…
Authors: Hana Hanifah and Askabea Fadhilla, The Habibie Center
ASEAN countries are no strangers to conflict and violence. As a region comprising diverse nation-states, Southeast Asia has experienced a number of inter- and intra-state conflicts. Political stability in the region has improved over the last decade, especially due to a decline in inter-state disputes. But intra-state disputes in the form of ethnic conflicts, violence against minorities and violent extremism — including terrorism — are gaining ground. Read more…
Authors: Jeffrey Becker and Erica Downs, CNA
In late May 2018, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense confirmed that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is constructing additional pier facilities at its military base in the Horn of Africa country of Djibouti. Chinese defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said that the new facilities would enable Beijing to ‘better fulfil China’s international responsibilities including anti-piracy work and to maintain the peace and stability of Africa and the world’. Read more…
Author: James L Taylor, University of Adelaide
22 May 2018 marked four years since Thailand’s last coup — the 12th successful one (out of 19) in Thailand since 1932. The motives behind the most recent coup were complex and depend on who you ask. But one thing is clear: throughout its history and in the years since the 2014 coup, Thailand’s fascistic tendencies have emerged through the crevices of an imaginary democratic state. Read more…
Author: Paul D Kenny, ANU
For the 20 years after British colonial rule in India ended, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress party engineered a remarkable state of democratic stability through the distribution of patronage to its political supporters. But within a few years of Nehru’s death in 1964, India’s party system descended into crisis. Read more…
Authors: Alvin A Camba, John Hopkins University and Kuek Jia Yao, Harvard University
There is no shortage of sceptics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Indeed, stories about the BRI often include the evocation of debt ‘traps’ and ‘vassal states’. While some concerns merit consideration, popular criticisms of the BRI tend to be built upon incomplete and distorted stereotypes, which only draws attention away from the actual shortcomings of the BRI that need to be addressed. Read more…
Author: Shiro Armstrong, ANU
Japan has found itself assuming new and unusual leadership responsibilities in the Asia Pacific as it deals with the rise of protectionism in the United States and parts of Europe. Japan has led the way in holding the line on the global economic rules-based order, through pressing conclusion of the Asia Pacific’s first mega-regional trade agreement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and initiating the EU–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
The world’s two largest economies are skirmishing around the brink of a global trade war. This dangerous development puts at risk the international trading system that underpins prosperity in the global economy.
Author: Roberto Azevêdo, WTO
The rising trade tensions of recent months have grabbed the headlines — and rightly so. But what you don’t often hear about is how well the global trading system has performed over the years. You could argue that global trade governance has actually been the quietest success story of the post-war era. It’s important to remember what we could stand to lose if the current tensions lead to an unmanageable escalation of tit-for-tat trade policy actions. Read more…
Authors: Mari Pangestu, University of Indonesia, and Christopher Findlay, University of Adelaide
The world in which Asia Pacific economies operate is changing. Two main forces are driving this change — one ‘top-down’, the other ‘bottom-up’.
The top-down force is the emergence of a world with a larger number of key economies. Read more…
Author: Gary Sands, Wikistrat
A humble t-shirt typically goes unnoticed, except when it displays an inflammatory statement or draws attention to a social cause its wearer chooses to advertise. Recent weeks have seen a few such t-shirts — featuring maps of China — draw significant outrage on social media. Read more…
