Showing 1 - 5 of 5
Politics and peril for Asian women
Asia focus, Nareerat Wiriyapong, Published on 16/05/2022
» The political landscape in Asia has been very dynamic lately, but it is a disappointment to me personally that events have not been kind to women.
Year of Turbulence
Asia focus, Published on 27/12/2021
» Pandemic drags on recovery: In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, many Asian countries had enviable success, avoiding large-scale outbreaks and mass deaths. But the arrival of the more transmissible Delta variant this year and sluggish vaccine rollouts compounded by low availability sent cases surging. Combined with poor monitoring and easy movement among countries, often unofficially, Southeast Asia became a virus hotspot. The ballooning health crisis collided with churning political discontent in the case of Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. Economically, the new wave of infections, and attendant restrictions imposed to curb the spread, stalled recoveries. After nearly two years of strict border controls, many countries started to loosen up and live with Covid. But the rise of the Omicron variant now threatens to scuttle those tentative reopening plans and usher in a third year of economic anxiety.
On guard against terror
Asia focus, Published on 03/02/2020
» When President Donald Trump ordered American troops to withdraw last October from northeastern Syria, critics said the decision would play into the hands of terrorists, with ramifications beyond the Middle East.
'Democracy' at odds with people's concerns in Sri Lanka
Asia focus, Published on 12/11/2018
» After Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced the shock decision on Oct 26 to appoint his longtime political foe Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister, Western diplomats and the international media expressed outrage at what they perceived as "lack of respect for democratic institutions".
China is losing the new cold war
Asia focus, Published on 17/09/2018
» When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, the Communist Party of China became obsessed with understanding why. Government think-tanks entrusted with the task heaped plenty of blame on Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist leader who was simply not ruthless enough to hold the Soviet Union together. But Chinese policymakers also highlighted other important factors, not all of which the country's leaders seem to be heeding today.