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This Week in Asia /

Opinion

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China Briefing
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Shipping containers are seen at the port in Nanjing, China’s eastern Jiangsu province, last month. Photo: AFP
China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | Why a second ‘China shock’ is good for Southeast Asia

Fear of Chinese imports is misplaced. Roughly 90 per cent of what the region buys is inputs and machinery driving local manufacturing.

Pacific nations

Opinion | Panic over China’s missile test is born of Western bias

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US, Israel war on Iran

Opinion | Oman and China: the real winners of Trump’s Iran deal?

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Singapore

Asian Angle | Singapore’s trade pacts prove small states can shape global rules

While major powers employ coercion, Singapore is using flexible, legally binding templates to keep trade open.

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Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement during a meeting in Canberra on October 8, 2025. Photo: EPA
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement during a meeting in Canberra on October 8, 2025. Photo: EPA
Indonesia

Asian Angle | Liberal Islam in Indonesia is sliding into irrelevance

Political entanglements and ideological schisms have left the pioneering Liberal Islam Network in disarray.

Asean

Asian Angle | Asean’s side deals in Myanmar risk missing where the power truly lies

Trading collective leverage for isolated bargains blinds the bloc to changing realities on the ground.

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South Korea

Asian Angle | Korean drama Teach You a Lesson serves up a reality check on education

The hit Netflix series uses a vigilante classroom fantasy to expose deep, real-world anxieties about school violence.

Kim Mu-yeol stars as Na Hwa-jin in “Teach You a Lesson”, the K-drama making waves across Asia. Photo: Handout
Kim Mu-yeol stars as Na Hwa-jin in “Teach You a Lesson”, the K-drama making waves across Asia. Photo: Handout
Vietnam

Asian Angle | When the US comes for Cuba, what can Vietnam do?

Vietnam has stood by Cuba for 60 years. Now Washington is raising the price of that friendship – and Hanoi must decide what it’s worth.

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Asean

Asian Angle | China builds Southeast Asia expertise as the US lets it wither

Yet neither power will truly grasp this complex, diverse region if they continue to treat it merely as a geopolitical chessboard.

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Indonesia

Asian Angle | Indonesia’s nickel rule changes are spooking Chinese investors

A leaked grievance letter reveals how Jakarta’s resource nationalism risks driving essential Chinese capital away.

A worker processes nickel at plant in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: EPA
Indonesia

Opinion | Indonesia’s labour movement is deeply divided over political patronage

Rival rallies reveal a fundamental clash between a co-opted union elite and an independent grass-roots movement.

Indonesian workers take part in a protest during a May Day rally marking International Workers’ Day in front of the East Java Governor’s Office in Surabaya on May 1. Photo: AFP
Indonesian workers take part in a protest during a May Day rally marking International Workers’ Day in front of the East Java Governor’s Office in Surabaya on May 1. Photo: AFP
Malaysia

Opinion | Can Malaysia’s unity government survive a state poll fight?

Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional might find it easier to compete locally and maintain a lukewarm federal alliance.

Asean

Asian Angle | Where Southeast Asians really want to live, work and travel

While Thailand leads for tourism, Singapore and Japan are the top draws for work, revealing uneven regional soft power dynamics.

Malaysia

Asian Angle | Malaysia’s 3R catch-all risks turning every grievance into a threat

Conflating local governance concerns with racial and religious slights threatens pluralism and stifles legitimate public policy debate.

Thousands of protesters rally near a mosque in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the Malaysian government’s withdrawal of plans to ratify a UN anti-discrimination convention in 2018. Photo: AP
Ageing society

Asian Angle | Asia’s silver dividend can offset ageing’s economic toll

Research shows demographic decline hits productivity, not workforce size. Keeping older workers active through technology is the solution.

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A street food hawker waits for customers by a roadside in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 12. Photo: EPA
A street food hawker waits for customers by a roadside in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 12. Photo: EPA
US-China relations

Asian Angle | What the China-US stability pact means for Southeast Asia

The real test of Beijing and Washington’s adoption of ‘constructive strategic stability’ will be how words translate into action.

China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | China offers Southeast Asia clear advantages in nuclear power

With its experience in exporting nuclear reactors, China can offer long-term energy security and technological upgrades.

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History

Opinion | The West was never the whole world. It’s time to move on

As Asia reclaims its roots, the burden of reinvention now falls on the West. Its brief era of supremacy was a historical aberration.

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People walk past a television screen in Beijing broadcasting US President Donald Trump’s visit to China on Thursday. Photo: EPA
People walk past a television screen in Beijing broadcasting US President Donald Trump’s visit to China on Thursday. Photo: EPA
China-Philippines relations

Asian Angle | 3 reasons Marcos’ South China Sea energy gambit won’t work

The Philippine president has mooted the idea of joint oil and gas development. China is willing, but history shows this road leads nowhere.

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US, Israel war on Iran

Opinion | Trump’s threats against Iran are historically illiterate

The US president’s threats to end Iranian civilisation expose his ignorance of the country’s long history.

Japan

Asian Angle | Why Japan-China ties can benefit from promoting people-to-people exchanges

Filling the information gap through direct contact between the two peoples can help improve both countries’ public images and ease tensions.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (left) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of their talks in Gyeongju, South Korea, on October 31, 2025. Photo: Kyodo
Thailand

Asian Angle | A year after corporal punishment ban, Thailand needs to curb resurgence

Two school incidents show corporal punishment remains prevalent, and Thai authorities must strengthen accountability to prevent a recurrence.

The World Health Organization asserts that corporal punishment increases behavioural problems, impairs socio-emotional development and, crucially, violates children’s rights to good health and physical integrity. Photo: Shutterstock
The World Health Organization asserts that corporal punishment increases behavioural problems, impairs socio-emotional development and, crucially, violates children’s rights to good health and physical integrity. Photo: Shutterstock
US, Israel war on Iran

Opinion | Trump’s oil crisis is accelerating the end of the fossil fuel era

Ironically for president ‘drill, baby, drill’, this crisis may prove an irreversible tipping point for clean energy.

War and conflict

Opinion | Blinding the world with lies makes peacemaking an impossible task

From Iran to the Horn of Africa, disinformation is killing diplomacy. Mediators need facts, not state-sponsored fictions.

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United States

Asian Angle | The Thucydides Trap is a lie created to justify a US-China war

Ancient Greece offers no lessons for Asia. The Global South must stop letting America’s war machine write history.

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Iranian women walk past a memorial in Tehran to a school that was targeted by a US air strike in February killing 165 children and staff. Photo: EPA
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