It was an interesting November for spectators on the island of Taiwan. Taiwan’s media has been paying close attention to the results of the U.S. presidential election and the recently-concluded 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Taiwan is awkwardly positioned between two giants, having close relations with the U.S. and an undetermined political […]
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un can launch a rocket this month in defiance of international opprobrium and still look forward to better relations with South Korea’s next president. The candidates in the Dec. 19 election to head Asia’s fourth-biggest economy are outdoing each other in pledges to re- engage with the totalitarian state, undeterred by Kim’s […]
A recent report on the humdrum subject of plans to build new coal-burning plants to generate electricity helps to explain why Asia – led by its rising economic giants, China and India – is at the epicentre of concern about global warming and climate change. Policy makers from nearly all of the world’s countries meet […]
U.S.-led talks on a free-trade pact in the Asia-Pacific region are entering a potential make-or-break stage, putting pressure on President Barack Obama and other leaders to sacrifice sensitive domestic interests for a big deal to boost growth. The 11 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, talks meet next week in Auckland, New Zealand, for the […]
As he looks ahead to 2013, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is cautiously optimistic. Lee believes Europeans have made some progress in trying to defuse the euro debt crisis, and while tensions between China and its neighbors have risen because of territorial disputes, he is confident about the role the U.S. plays as part […]
Outgoing Chinese Premier Wei Jiabao returned to Beijing this week office after disappointing ASEAN and East Asia summits that failed to live-up to years of diplomatic posturing and positioning, designed to protect his country’s territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. The pro-Beijing lobby will no doubt praise his efforts in Cambodia where China successfully thwarted attempts […]
Malaysia’s economic performance does not make headlines like it used to, but that does not mean that the economy is not still chugging along nicely. In fact, with the exception of difficult periods following major shocks such as the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Malaysian GDP growth has performed well over the last decade, averaging about […]
Lee Bok Sun is planning to close her 28-year-old fruit store in Seoul for good. Many of her customers have switched to a new hypermarket owned by one of South Korea’s chaebol, the family-controlled business groups that dominate the economy. “My baby brother gave me the money to start this shop to thank me for […]
International attention on Sri Lanka has focused recently on a devastating report from the United Nations reviewing its own failure to protect civilians during the humanitarian catastrophe of the final months of the island nation’s civil war in 2009. Yet as many in the international community have been looking back, a new, quieter crisis is […]
China, Japan and South Korea started talks on a free-trade agreement vital to an Asia-wide deal in a move to forge closer economic ties even as they spar over disputed islands. The countries, representing three of Asia’s four biggest economies, will hold the first round of talks early next year, according to Xinhua, China’s official […]
looking beyond borders 