Global governance

A worker adjusts an ASEAN flag at a meeting hall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 28 October 2021. (Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)

Why is China’s Global Development Initiative well received in Southeast Asia?

Southeast Asian countries appear to have unanimously supported China’s Global Development Initiative in the hope that it will contribute towards addressing their development deficits and that China will up its economic game more broadly in the region. But a closer examination shows that other considerations continue to worry them.
China's Vice-Premier Liu He addresses the World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, 17 January 2023. (Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters)

China can still shine if it acts on Vice-Premier Liu He's Davos advice

At this year’s Davos forum, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He laid out five points that have led to China’s success so far. However, his session did not see a packed crowd, while China’s claims of sticking to reform and opening up seem less than convincing when taken against its actions. Commentator Jin Jian Guo delves into the importance of staying the course.
China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (right) is greeted by Gabon's Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Moussa Adamo (left) upon his arrival at the Leon Mba International Airport in Libreville on 11 January 2023. (Steeve Jordan/AFP)

A new broom sweeps clean? Qin Gang and Chinese diplomacy

While new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang seems to be adopting continuity in Chinese foreign policy, there are subtle nuances that may augur well for China’s diplomacy. As for managing China’s relations with the US, courting US allies would be a good way forward, if China can resist responding with off-putting knee-jerk reactions.
Delegates applaud during the handover ceremony at the G20 Leaders' Summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, 16 November 2022. (Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

The G20 Summit: Who makes the world’s rules?

The Group of 7 are relatively aligned in their perceptions of global challenges, particularly when it comes to strategic competitors such as China and Russia, but the same perceptions do not hold true when it comes to the remaining members of the bigger Group of 20.
Foreign tourists walk past a banner of the G20 for the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesia resort island of Bali on 14 July 2022. (Sonny Tumbelaka/Pool/AFP)

Indonesia’s G20 presidency: Carving out a path for developing countries' representation

Amid a world shaken by global events, President Jokowi has done his fair share of shuttle diplomacy in the lead-up to the G20 Summit in Bali later this year. While Indonesia has the potential to play an intermediary role among global powers, it remains circumspect and looks to push forward the G20 agenda in incremental and achievable steps.
Members of social organisations demonstrate after camping overnight at Plaza de Mayo square in front of Casa Rosada Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires on 11 August 2022, during a protest demanding better wages and more jobs and a meeting with Argentina's new economy minister Sergio Massa. Argentina has suffered years of economic crisis, with some 37% of its population now living in poverty. Inflation for the first half of this year alone topped 36%. (Luis Robayo/AFP)

Can the world survive these six crises?

Economics professor Zhang Rui identifies the main crises faced by global economies today, their various effects, and how they are interrelated. How will governments handle these challenges and work together to ease the impact of what seems to be a perfect storm of negative factors?
Pedestrians are silhouetted against a large public video screen showing an image of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in the Akihabara district of Tokyo on 8 July 2022, after he was shot and killed in the city of Nara. (Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP)

Kishida will pick up the baton of Shinzo Abe's dream

Abe’s major accomplishments are in his diplomacy and security policies, and these are the areas that will be highlighted when history passes judgement on him. PM Fumio Kishida has every reason to pick up where Abe left off, seeking to expand this grand vision of the Indo-Pacific and keep the unreliable US in check, but the biggest obstacle will be establishing a consensus within the ruling party.
President Joe Biden gestures as he addresses media representatives during a press conference at the NATO summit at the Ifema congress centre in Madrid, on 30 June 2022. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

The US’s fragmented foreign policy

Analyst Zheng Weibin notes that the NATO summit in Madrid showed the US’s lack of awareness of what Asian countries really want — namely, not to take sides in the US-China competition. Such lack of judgement will hamper their policy of reinvigorating their relations with Asia. Will they be able to realise the incongruence in their policies and change course?
A family looks at the Forbidden City closed due to Covid-19 outbreak in Beijing on 17 May 2022. (Wang Zhao/AFP)

China's response to Ukraine war calls its values into question

Hong Kong businessman and political figure Lew Mon-hung notes that China used to have a strong sense of right and wrong, with values of righteousness and morality. However, looking at China’s reaction to the war in Ukraine, it seems that these values have been abandoned. And this can only lead to a shift in the progress that China has made over the past 40 years.