Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Opinion /

Asia Opinion

Related Topics:
My Take
Macroscope
People walk through the University of Tokyo on May 27, 2025. Photo: AP
Japan

Opinion | Universities in Japan and China are becoming tools of national strategy

Across Asia, higher education is becoming a central arena where national ambition, geopolitical constraint and human capital intersect.

videocam
Lunar New Year

Being Chinese | The great Lunar New Year divide and how I bridged it

Bangladesh

Opinion | Bangladesh’s BNP could struggle to enact reforms despite election win

videocam
South China Sea

Opinion | Can Manila’s South China Sea strategy of defiance and diplomacy hold?

China and the Philippines are both signalling openness to diplomacy alongside continued military flexing, but this may not be sustainable.

videocam
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Cambodia

Opinion | Cambodia’s scam factory survivors find no escape in freedom

A government crackdown freed thousands, but with no passports or support, survivors have simply traded captivity for destitution.

Banking & finance

Macroscope | How robust domestic financial markets could ease era of AI uncertainty

Attempts to develop financial centres must go beyond luring global capital and talent.

videocam
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Asean

Asian Angle | How Asean can resolve its Myanmar dilemma post-election

Asean should not discard the Five-Point Consensus, but translate it into a politically astute strategy of conditional engagement.

videocam
4
Vote counting takes place on January 25 in Yangon for Myanmar’s general election. Photo: Kyodo
Vote counting takes place on January 25 in Yangon for Myanmar’s general election. Photo: Kyodo
Japan

Opinion | Takaichi’s anti-China stance won’t bolster Japan’s security

As the US-led order unravels, the Japanese prime minister’s militaristic approach goes against the global shift towards cooperation with China.

videocam
China technology

Opinion | ‘Becoming Chinese’ memes reflect a world shaped by China’s ascent

The memes are really about how deeply global digital life is embedded in Chinese-built systems – and how comfortable young people are with that.

videocam
Japan

Macroscope | Japan will soon learn how far Takaichi can ride her luck

While Japan is unlikely to have its own Liz Truss moment, high debt levels and an empowered populist in charge are still reasons for concern.

videocam
Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister and president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, puts in pins marking the names of candidates who won lower house elections, at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, on February 8. Photo: AP
Japan

Opinion | Will Japan’s election result trigger a security spiral with China?

The result of Japan’s election has altered Tokyo’s domestic political calculus while raising the stakes for regional stability.

videocam
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Scams and swindles

Opinion | Cambodia is in a frontline battle against transnational scam syndicates

Targeted due to geography, Cambodia is on the front foot now, dismantling scam compounds, rescuing victims and prosecuting criminals.

videocam
Asia housing and property

The View | Asian property markets’ supply constraints are a double-edged sword

The narrow pool of high-quality assets benefits landlords and affluent investors but poses a challenge to prospective buyers and renters.

videocam
Vietnam

Opinion | Vietnam’s renewed nuclear power push faces formidable hurdles

Money, corruption, a lack of skilled staff and other factors may derail Hanoi’s goal of building its first nuclear power plant by 2031.

A nuclear power plant operating at night. Russia’s state-owned energy company Rosatom has been contracted to build Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant. Photo: Shutterstock
Thailand

Asian Angle | Thailand’s election will pass verdict on the architecture of elite control

After court rulings removed successive PMs, this election tests whether a popular mandate can finally survive the state’s veto traps.

Pedestrians walk past campaign posters in Bangkok on Tuesday ahead of Thailand’s general election. Photo: AFP
Pedestrians walk past campaign posters in Bangkok on Tuesday ahead of Thailand’s general election. Photo: AFP
India

Opinion | Why the new US-India trade agreement is a big deal

The warming of New Delhi’s ties with Washington has implications for Russia, China and the global dynamics of trade and geopolitical power.

videocam
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Outside In | Apec’s quiet cooperation still matters in a noisy, divided world

Year-round, multiple intensive working meetings keep the forum an ‘engine room’ of cooperation, reflecting its commitment to multilateralism.

videocam
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Commodities

Macroscope | Blame Trump, not Asian investors, for gold and silver volatility

The global uncertainty stemming from Trump’s behaviour is roiling precious metals markets far more than any investment from Asia.

videocam
Molten gold made from jewelry is poured into a mold to produce a gold bar at the Austrian Gold and Silver Refinery in Vienna, Austria on February 3. Photo: AFP
Molten gold made from jewelry is poured into a mold to produce a gold bar at the Austrian Gold and Silver Refinery in Vienna, Austria on February 3. Photo: AFP
United States

Opinion | Chilling effect of US outbound investment rules will extend beyond China

Outbound investment rules introduced last year are expanding and hardening into law, chilling US investment across Asia’s tech ecosystems.

videocam
China economy

Opinion | China’s real constraint is where to direct limited fiscal resources

With Beijing focusing on spending priorities, Asian investors and businesses must watch which provinces, sectors and state firms are favoured.

videocam
Climate change

Opinion | Why China and Europe should care about Central Asia’s water crisis

Central Asian rivers shape Eurasian trade flows, affect global food markets and contribute to geopolitical instability across the region.

The Dzungarian Alatau mountain range in Kazakhstan. Photo: Central Asia
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | How ‘ghost workers’ stand at the crossroads of AI development

The future of artificial intelligence depends not only on algorithms but on who controls and benefits from the labour that machines rely on.

videocam
An employee works at a tech start-up in Bengaluru, India, on February 3, 2025. Photo: AFP
An employee works at a tech start-up in Bengaluru, India, on February 3, 2025. Photo: AFP
China-Philippines relations

Asian Angle | South China Sea: 6 risks facing Philippines, China as conflict threshold lowers

From violent incidents to US missiles in Luzon, a ‘perilous new normal’ and vanishing red lines threaten to derail the Code of Conduct.

videocam
Trade

Opinion | The India-EU trade pact is a rebuke of US economic coercion

Beyond trade liberalisation, the partnership will weaken Washington’s ability to use tariffs as leverage and dictate the rules of global economic engagement.

Japan

Macroscope | Could Japan stop being the ballast of the bond market?

A lower house election victory would give flight to Prime Minister Takaichi’s fiscal expansionism – and introduce upheaval far beyond Japan.

Japan’s 10-year government bond yield, seen on a screen outside a brokerage in Tokyo on January 21, touched its highest in a century this month. Photo: Reuters
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW