Security

Liu Jianchao speaks at a session during the FutureChina Dialogue at Shangri-la Singapore, on 27 March 2024. (SPH Media)

Chinese Minister Liu Jianchao: Asia’s choice matters

Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Liu Jianchao made a keynote speech at the FutureChina Dialogue 2024 on 27 March co-organised by Business China Singapore, Lianhe Zaobao and ThinkChina. He spoke about Asia’s role amid turbulence and the realignments of relationships among major countries of the world, and China’s role in engaging with the region and working together to build better lives for their peoples. This is an edited transcript of his speech.
The photo taken on 21 March 2024 shows employees selecting vegetables for exportation at a food factory in Nantong, in eastern China's Jiangsu province. (AFP)

Tackling food fraud upstream and downstream

Journalist Chieh-Yi Cheng notes that the traditional ways of food preparation have given way to high-tech production, leading to the improvement of food quality, as well as counterfeiting methods. It now becomes a cat-and-mouse game, with the need to boost efforts in surveillance, tracing funding sources, and tracking the quantity and movement of raw materials and ingredients, in order to nip the problem in the bud.
Debris is pictured next to a damaged Buddha statue following fighting between Myanmar's military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Nam Hpat Kar, Kutkai township, in Myanmar's northern Shan State, on 4 February 2024. (AFP)

How China and India are handling Myanmar's crisis three years on

In the three years since the coup in Myanmar, the country’s northern border with China has become an economic and strategic challenge to Beijing’s interests, while India is faced with the biggest humanitarian and security crisis, with refugees entering India posing an immediate security challenge.
This aerial photo taken on 1 November 2021 shows volunteers helping farmers harvest rice in Huzhuang, Jiangsu province, China. (AFP)

China’s embrace of GM crops will have global implications

Despite China’s efforts to make genetically modified organisms (GMO) technology a key plank of China’s food security, China has yet to meaningfully translate its research efforts into successful commercialisation, say academics Shaleen Khanal and Zhang Hongzhou. If China manages to overcome the various obstacles to commercialising GM crops, the global landscape of GMO governance, production and exports will be greatly changed.
People walk through Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 12 December 2023. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

China-US R&D decoupling detrimental for both countries

Given the US’s firm stance on safeguarding national security, in particular against China, the research and development sector is among the few that have been deeply impacted. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Hai Kexian speaks with academics to find out the severity of this decoupling in research collaboration.
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu (centre) leaves his inauguration ceremony in Male on 17 November 2023. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP)

Ripples in Maldives-India relations: The China factor

Mohamed Muizzu, the newly elected president of the Maldives, seems to be pivoting away from India and moving closer to other sources of support, such as the Arab countries and China. With a wary eye on China's ambitions in the Indian Ocean, India is expected to push back strongly.
The flags of the US and China fly from a lamppost in the Chinatown neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, US, on 1 November 2021. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

How the weakening of major powers affects the world

Chinese academic Xiang Lanxin believes that over the past few years, not only have the relationships between the major powers deteriorated, but these powers are also becoming weaker in different ways. How will such changes impact the world and the powers?
This handout photo from the Armed Forces of the Philippines taken on 4 January 2024 shows a pilot executing a final check in a Philippine Navy AW109 helicopter on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson during the second iteration of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US Indo-Pacific Command Military Cooperative Activity in the South China Sea. (Handout/Armed Forces of the Philippines/AFP)

China’s naval defence gains priority amid US’s aggressive Indo-Pacific strategy

Academic Chen Gang notes that China’s appointment of its first defence minister with a naval background highlights the priority it has set for its military development. Given the US’s aggressive Indo-Pacific maritime strategy, China is responding in kind, leading to "grey rhino" that could spark a war.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks at the 20th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, Guangxi province, China, on 17 September 2023. (SPH Media)

China’s 'community of shared future' with Southeast Asia: Behind the numbers

Seven ASEAN member states have signed on to China’s “community of shared future” more for mutually beneficial cooperation than because they subscribe fully to the Chinese vision of a new regional order. The remaining three may prefer practical cooperation rather than to be enmeshed in China’s grand strategy and discourse.