South East Asia

More than 16 months after taking office, President Joe Biden stepped off Air Force One and onto Asian soil for the first time in his presidency. His four-day visit coincided with a slew of diplomatic initiatives: Bilateral summits with allies like South Korea and Japan, the Quad Leader’s Summit and …

Q: “Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?” (CBS News) A: “Yes.” (President Joe Biden, May 23, 2022) Q: “ You are?” (CBS) A: “That’s the commitment we made.” (President Biden) Once again, an unplanned and impromptu remark from President Biden has …

As NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Beijing at a March 23 press conference not to aid Russia in the Ukraine war, a batch of e-mails believed to be sent by Chinese state-sponsored hackers landed in the inboxes of researchers and engineers at several Russian military-development institutes. The e-mails all carried …

All the Pacific Island nations invited to the foreign ministerial conference had already embraced Beijing’s “One China Policy.” Some of these states once had diplomatic links with Taiwan but were wooed away by Beijing’s offer of financial loans, investment and corrupt practices, such as direct interference in the domestic political …

President Joe Biden, speaking Monday during his first visit presidential visit to Japan, signaled an apparent end to the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity by saying the United States would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion. “Yes,” Biden replied when asked by a reporter in Tokyo if he was willing …

In 2022, there will be great interest in Asia’s summit season because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The annual East Asia Summit, ASEAN and APEC meetings always attract attention due to the proximity of many world leaders, but the less glamorous work of the multilateral mechanisms goes on throughout the …

As their strategic rivalry grows, China and the U.S. are increasingly operating in close proximity in the Asia Pacific. An accident or misinterpreted signal could set off a wider confrontation. The danger level is low, but dialogue is needed to dial it down further. What’s new? The risk of an unintended …

On May 16, wheat prices reached a new high, as India banned exports amid a disastrous heat wave.India, the second largest producer of wheat worldwide, conveyed growing concerns about the status of its own food supply amid skyrocketing prices and decreased harvests. Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is a …

China wants to expand the group of emerging economies known as BRICS, in the first shake up of the bloc in over a decade, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday. Brazil, Russia, India and China initially formed the bloc in 2009, with South Africa joining in 2010. “China proposes …

China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.” In it, the authors “suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic …