World order

While Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s 3-5 Jan visit to Beijing reaped economic opportunities, it was also a missed opportunity to leverage the 2016 arbitral award, says Philippine academic Charmaine Misalucha-Willoughby. The onus rests on the Philippines to keep the West Philippine Sea on the agenda, and there are several steps the Marcos administration should keep in mind in doing so.

The US often stresses the need to uphold the rules-based international order, but its recent moves towards giving priority to developing the domestic economy and manufacturing within the US might mean that the advocate of the rules may be guilty of undermining them.

While smiles at the recent Xi-Biden in-person meeting in Bali might have painted a rosy picture of US-China relations, the reality is that domestic politics, especially in the US, may stir and stoke tensions in bilateral relations in the new year.

Amid the US-West realignment, developing countries and middle powers have strengthened mutual cooperation via high-level diplomacy. China’s deepening relations with Saudi Arabia and the Arab world as seen by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent high-profile visit to Riyadh is a key sign of this development.

George Yeo, Singapore’s former foreign minister, delivered the Goh Keng Swee Lecture on Modern China to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute on 15 December. In covering issues of the day such as China-US rivalry, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the South China Sea, he concludes that a multipolar world is good for both China and the US. This is the full transcript of his speech.

Thorsten Benner of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin points out that unlike former Chancellor Merkel, current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has invested a lot of time into building closer connections with Asian partners. This fits in with his worldview of multiple emerging global powers, and the need to foster resilience, diversification and “de-risking” in achieving economic security vis-a-vis China.

The US’s recent release of its new National Security Strategy (NSS) represents its vow to outcompete its rivals, especially China, on the international stage. Political commentator Jin Jian Guo says that the ideological tussle between China and the US is becoming a new Cold War and for the NSS to be released during the period of China’s 20th Party Congress, the starter’s pistol has been fired in a strategic competition where there can only be one winner.

After more than two years since the start of the pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping will resume making diplomatic visits overseas with his Central Asia tour this month. The geopolitical situation has vastly transformed during his physical absence in the international arena. Zaobao correspondent Yang Danxu explores the implications of these changes.

As the world rapidly shifts from an economic one to a highly political one, competition will no longer be about who wins more but about who loses less. In the shift from a win-win to a zero-sum game, China is torn as it strives to get closer to the developed world yet seeks to maintain a distance from the third world and Russia. In navigating these troubled waters, three critical developments — relations with Russia, Taiwan, and decoupling from the West — may alter the fate of China. This is the last in a series of four articles contemplating a changing world order.