Category: East Asia

The phrase “Free Tibet” is so ubiquitous to so many, that it has almost lost its meaning. Why does Tibet need to be freed, and from whom? Tibet has been occupied by Communist China since…

While at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar commented that New Delhi will not decouple from the US dollar, noting that it was not in his country’s economic interests.…

The more things change the more they stay the same. In the 2024 Diplomatic Bluebook, recently released through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan assertively labeled China a global threat, while still carefully trying to balance…

As Indonesia’s term as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Chair ended, there was both reservation and alarm at the possibility of Laos serving as its successor. In late 2023, ASEAN moved ahead with a “troika” format, with…

It was less than two days into 2024 when Song Tao, the director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, called on all Taiwanese to promote “peaceful reunification” with the mainland. But down in the text, the…

Amid China’s heavy investments in Cambodia, made evident by the vast sums of public and private cash flooding both the capital city of Phnom Penh and port cities like Sihanoukville, two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyers, the Suzunami and Shimakaze, each…

When the new president of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, took power less than four months ago, his anti-India stance altered the fragile state of India’s sphere of influence in its own backyard. Running on a firm…

Since 2018, the human rights environment in mainland China and its associated autonomous regions has deteriorated. The evidence is overwhelming. The latest US State Department Report on China’s human rights record recognised ‘genocide and crimes…

The late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to improve ties over security concerns about North Korean provocation, but like his counterpart, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon in the end, failed. In 2008,…

In October 2023, Russia and China made headlines due to their actions in the United Nations (UN). The UN Security Council rejected a Russia-sponsored resolution on Gaza that did not mention Hamas. Moscow failed to…