Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Chris Manning, ANU
Controversy has surrounded revision of Indonesia’s foreign worker regulations ever since the Presidential Regulation (PP20) on the subject was issued on 26 March 2018. This is hardly surprising considering 2019 is an election year. Parties and potential presidential candidates are already looking for standout issues to garner public support. Read more…
Author: Joshua P Meltzer, Brookings
During the US presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump singled out Chinese trade practices as a key concern. Once in office many of the threats he made against China, such as labelling it a currency manipulator and imposing 30 per cent tariffs, did not come to pass. But this is changing as dealing with China increasingly assumes centre stage for the administration.
Author: Neil J Diamant, Dickinson College
China invests massively — both in terms of funding and human capital — in the ‘image management’ of its armed and security forces. Led or coordinated by the secretive Central Propaganda Department (also known as the ‘Central Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China’ in the English-speaking world), China drills home to one and all, at home and abroad, several messages: Read more…
Author: Editorial Board, ANU
As the celebrations subsided on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014, many Indians might have been wondering, we then wrote, what they had done. Above all they voted decisively for change from the elitist Indian National Congress-dominated politics of the past and for a new openness in the hope that Modi would lift the country out of low-level growth and political scandal and corruption. Read more…
Author: Katharine Adeney, University of Nottingham
India is the world’s largest democracy. It scores well on international democracy ranking measures, voter turnout rates have risen, and the electorate has become savvier at using the political system. This political empowerment has resulted in the proliferation of parties at the centre and the state level. But since the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narendra Modi as head of a single-party government in 2014 (the first since 1984), many academics and activists have raised concerns about Hindu ‘majoritarianism’ and its challenge to democracy and the rule of law. Read more…
Author: Amitendu Palit, ISAS–NUS
The recently released Indian Economic Strategy to 2035 report outlines three core objectives for improving the Australia–India economic relationship. These include making India one of Australia’s top three export markets by 2035, making India the third-largest Asian recipient of Australian foreign direct investment by the same year and bringing India ‘into the inner circle of Australia’s strategic partnerships and with people-to-people ties as close as any in Asia’. Read more…
Author: Aileen S P Baviera, University of the Philippines
During this year’s chairmanship of ASEAN, Singapore is expected to continue the association’s work in developing measures to help mitigate tensions in the South China Sea. In recent years, ASEAN and China have agreed to establish communication hotlines between their respective foreign ministries as well as to implement the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES). CUES is intended to reduce incidents between the navies (and eventually the coast guards) of littoral states. Read more…
Author: Adam Leong Kok Wey, National Defence University of Malaysia
Malaysia’s recent election on 9 May 2018 saw a dramatic result — the incumbent Barisan Nasional ruling coalition that had ruled Malaysia for 61 years crumbled, and Pakatan Harapan, a coalition of opposition parties, emerged victorious. One of the numerous reasons why the ruling party lost in the elections is that Malaysia’s foreign policy was perceived by a large segment of its people to be too cosy to China. Read more…
Author: Mason Richey, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
There is a widespread perception among analysts of East Asian strategy that China — along with North Korea — is the big winner in the ongoing diplomatic efforts on the Korean Peninsula. This is perhaps not surprising given recent trends in the regional and global balance of power. But it is still remarkable considering that Beijing was sidelined in the initial phases of inter-Korean diplomatic engagement. Read more…
Author: Tuan N Pham, Yokosuka (Japan)
Last May, Washington disinvited Beijing from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise on the grounds that Chinese actions in the South China Sea run counter to the pursuit of free and open seas. Like RIMPAC 2014 and 2016, China dispatched a spy ship into the United States’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to monitor the world’s largest international maritime exercise. Read more…
Author: C Peter Timmer, Harvard University
Three processes drive modernisation: a structural transformation of the economy with agriculture playing a lesser role as the country gets richer, an agricultural transformation that raises the sector’s productivity and produces a more diversified output, and a dietary transformation that occurs when consumers become richer and can afford to choose from a greater variety of foods. That these three transformations are linked through economic, political and cultural forces complicates the task of designing sensible food policies for emerging economies. Read more…
Author: Adam Triggs, ANU
Argentina has announced that it is seeking financial support from China to help manage its currency crisis. It is engaging in a process that has become known as ‘facility shopping’. Countries facing an economic crisis now have plenty of options for where they can get financial assistance. The goal of facility shopping is to obtain the largest amount of financial assistance possible without having to undertake difficult economic reforms in return. Read more…
Author: Charles K Armstrong, Columbia University
The 12 June US–DPRK summit meeting was vastly oversold, not least by US President Donald Trump. The day after the summit, Trump tweeted that the North Korean nuclear threat had been removed, even though Pyongyang had taken no verifiable action toward eliminating its nuclear program. Read more…
Authors: Kai Ostwald, University of British Columbia, Krislert Samphantharak, University of California San Diego and Yuhki Tajima, Georgetown University
Twenty years have now passed since the New Order regime was overthrown in Indonesia. This event triggered not only democratisation in Indonesia but also a remarkable experiment with decentralisation that saw significant power transferred from Jakarta down to the country’s many and diverse districts. Read more…
Author: Sim Vireak, Phnom Penh
Cambodia’s fast growth rate over the past few decades has contributed to a rise in income levels and a drastic reduction in poverty in the country. All major financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast Cambodia’s GDP growth to stand at around 6.9 or 7 per cent in the near term. Cambodia will likely transition out of its least developed country status after 2025 if it can maintain this growth rate. Read more…
