Politics

Based on findings from not one, but three recent opinion polls, ISEAS senior fellow Malcolm Cook finds that there is a serious level of distrust of China in Asia.

Yu Zeyuan says it would be quite wrong to think that China stands on the losing end of the recently concluded phase one Economic and Trade Agreement between the US and China. The picture may be quite the opposite.

Just about a week after the Taiwan presidential election, the rhetoric from both sides of the Taiwan Strait is aggressive. Will China take military action to take back Taiwan, or go with a safer approach? Zaobao associate editor Han Yong Hong examines the reasons for Tsai Ing-wen’s big win and concludes that young people will play a major role in the future.

Chinese observer Zhang Jingwei says China held its own in sealing phase one of the US-China trade deal. But this is just a prelude to the second act as the US heads further into its election year.

Hong Kong political commentator Leung Man-tao looks back in Chinese modern history and recent happenings to conclude that Chinese people often disregard realism and common sense when faced with nationwide campaigns. He bids the authorities in Hong Kong to refrain from letting re-election hopes cloud their larger mission of taking Hong Kong to greater heights. He also pleads with Hong Kongers to listen to reason, and not let political waves from one side or the other ruin all that is good about Hong Kong.

Prof Zheng Yongnian bemoans the “culturally-bereft” middle class in China, and labels them the “hooligan middle class”. He opines that the absence of a cultural middle class is the reason why China lacks originality in technology and innovation, why the intellectual community produces little useful knowledge, and why China has not been able to advance towards qualitative economic growth. He offers the solution.

An online survey by the ASEAN Studies Centre at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute shows that Southeast Asian opinion leaders are split down the middle when it comes to strategic alignment with the US or China. But who says it has to be one or the other? With US involvement in the region on a lower ebb and wariness of China on the rise, players such as Japan and the EU are increasingly looked upon as attractive and reliable alternatives.

While Beijing has been relatively restrained in commenting on the Taiwan election, Chinese state media has been criticising the US for backing the Democratic Progressive Party in opposing the mainland. Zaobao journalist Edwin Ong speaks to Sun Zhe, co-director of the China Initiative at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, who opines that Chinese state media was raising reasonable doubt on behalf of the state.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew may have passed on, but his views survive. What might he have thought about the current China-US trade war? Zhu Ying looks at Mr Lee’s comments about China and the US for some clues.