There are allegations that China’s practices force foreign companies to part with technology—a backhanded intellectual theft that has been at the heart of the China-US discord. There have been ethical concerns, too (the 2
China’s command economy has returned through the backdoor, with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the state’s effort to pick and promote private enterprise such as information and communications giant Huawei, telecom
A vast body of works that takes the reader back and forth in time, gazing at the two neighbouring countries through the prisms of history, literature, science, art, politics and much more.
Shinzo Abe seeks an evolution of Yoshida Doctrine. Abe has made constitutional revision high on the agenda, seeking the ‘birth of a new Japan’ before it hosts the 2020 Olympics.
Beyond the chaff of class, riches and the fluff, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ comes across as a reminder of the possibilities and choiceful learnings from Singapore’s economic transformation.
As a major ASEAN and regional player, actively reaching out to Japan, re-examining Chinese investments, and being upfront on the South China Sea, Mahathir Mohamad has onset a change in the region—still being tested, but one
As Singapore prepares to host the leaders, it is still unknown whether the US will foot the bill for the North Korean leader’s trip and if the North Korean delegation will travel using the (old) Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-62 o
SCS may be understood as the ‘reset’ of China’s infamous yesteryears’ dossier. But what is the dossier? Indians may connect with China’s dossier with reference to the ration card, much needed (back then) for a telep
Wuhan, a city on the banks of the Yangtze river in hinterland China, far from the country’s prosperous ‘golden coastline’ of Shanghai and political capital Beijing, is a city pregnant with metaphor. In 1966, it was in W
China’s president Xi Jinping has a successor—himself. With this, Xi has re-stated the old dictum—now, political mandate is the basis of the economic mandate.
It envisages a “connected and cooperative region stabilised by a durable balance of power.” India, like others, is getting on-board, but living the Indo-Pacific dream is not easy, with irritants along the way
Act East will gather momentum because now there is greater connectivity, better prospect of trade, market and exchange of information. Export-oriented ASEAN will look at India because of India’s emerging market and quality
China is no doubt going from strength to strength and is the most important rising power, economically and militarily, yet when seen relative to American power, it has a long way to go
‘Thought’, ‘theory’ and ‘ism’ have different statuses in China’s ideological hierarchy—it has been Mao Zedong’s ‘thought’ and now Xi Jinping’s ‘thought’ (Deng Xiaoping had a ‘theory’)
North Korea’s collapse, its unification with South Korea which has extended the olive branch, or North Korea under the Chinese umbrella … all have deep ramifications for China, and this is where the ‘great game’ is be
The economic asymmetry between India—the proverbial ‘caged tiger’—and China is fundamental and runs deep. India’s rise as an economic power can change the equation.
That iconic classic The Little Engine That Could (apparently one of former US president Obama’s favourite) was the story of the brave engine that dreamt big, and scaled heights, motivated not by profit but by something high
President Xi Jinping is readying for the big day, the 19th Party Congress scheduled this autumn. Many if not most, are working overtime to predict its possible outcome. With China—a political system so opaque—no one knows
Korea, long described as the ‘shrimp among whales,’ has worn the crown of its ‘geographical destiny’ as great powers, the ‘whales’—the US, Japan, Russia and China—intersect here.
Sino-North Korean friendship is “closer than lips are to teeth.” At the same time, for China, which has been riding the North Korean tiger, getting off isn’t easy
In ‘soft-power’ stakes, famously defined by American scholar Joseph Nye (who coined the word) as “the ability to get what one wants by attraction and persuasion rather than coercion or payment,” China has not cut ice
In post-socialist China, with socialism and forced gender parity a thing of the past, out in the open are cases of rape, molestation, domestic violence and the social stigma of “left-over” women
