China is upping its game in the South China Sea with a formidable new coastguard vessel poised to assert its wide-ranging territorial claims. This month, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that China is advancing its maritime capabilities with the construction of a new coastguard vessel modeled after a sophisticated destroyer outfitted with state-of-the-art […]

The post China’s new maritime goliath poised to patrol disputed seas appeared first on Asia Times.

Ukrainians have long become used to grim news reports from their besieged lands. But that’s suddenly changed. Following its remarkably successful incursion of Russia’s Kursk region, cheerful Ukrainian journalists are now covering the war from captured Russian territory. Ukraine’s surprise counterpunch, taking the fight into Russia for the first time, shows no signs yet of […]

The post What’s Ukraine’s endgame in Kursk? appeared first on Asia Times.

BANGKOK – Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been elected Thailand’s next prime minister, a dramatic and unexpected shift in national leadership that consolidates the family clan’s hold on politics but won’t necessarily stabilize them.   Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor – with 319 for, 145 against and 27 abstaining – of the 37-year-old political novice and loyal […]

The post Fresh-faced Shinawatra takes the helm in tumultuous Thailand appeared first on Asia Times.

This article was first published by Pacific Forum and is republished with kind permission. Read the original here. As Beijing looked on angrily, the US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers met in Tokyo during the last week of July to announce they will increase bilateral security cooperation. The US government said it will upgrade its military […]

The post China isn’t getting the Japan it wants appeared first on Asia Times.

TAIPEI ­– Two sporting legends from opposite sides of the globe. The fiercest rivals in the world’s most demanding athletic event, the Decathlon – their duel at the Rome Games in 1960 still one of the iconic moments in Olympic history. And also – unknown to many – the closest of friends, training together under […]

The post One of the greatest untold Olympics stories appeared first on Asia Times.

Amid the chaos that followed the US pullout from Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, the Biden administration declared that evacuated Afghans would be allowed to enter the United States via humanitarian parole. The initiative would provide them with temporary access to American soil, but not with a pathway to permanent residency. In the weeks that […]

The post Unfinished business left over from Afghanistan exit appeared first on Asia Times.

The growth of China’s fixed-asset investment (FAI) and retail sales has remained slow so far this year as falling home prices continue to suppress property investment and people’s spending.  The country’s FAI increased 3.6% to 28.7 trillion yuan (US$4 trillion) in the first seven months of this year from a year ago, according to the […]

The post Property crisis still haunts China investment, consumption appeared first on Asia Times.

United Nations’ demographers project that, by the end of this century, Turkey’s labor force will fall by half and Iran’s will fall by two-fifths while Israel’s will double. Turkish women in 2023 were estimated to have an average of just 1.5 children over their lifetime, half of Israel’s total fertility rate of 3 children per […]

The post Israel is the future of the Middle East appeared first on Asia Times.

Late Wednesday night, a surreal scene unfolded in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area. Hundreds of students gathered, lighting candles to honor those who had fallen and injured during what is now referred to as the “July Revolution” in Bangladesh, which led to the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year autocratic rule. Initially, the students observed the night in […]

The post Anti-Hasina Bangladeshis on alert for ‘evil remnants’ appeared first on Asia Times.

The Ukrainian advance into Russia’s Kursk oblast took almost everyone by surprise. Perhaps not the Russians stationed on the border, who reportedly tried to warn of a Ukrainian troop buildup, but the rest of us who watch the conflict closely did not think the Ukrainian army – under increasingly severe pressure in Donetsk oblast further […]

The post Kursk has put Putin on the back foot – for now appeared first on Asia Times.

Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night (August 12), Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz claimed Australia was “giving away its natural resources”, something he found “mind-boggling”. He said that if Australia made the fossil fuel industry pay for the value of the resources it extracts and its fair share of taxes, “you wouldn’t have the […]

The post Is Australia ‘giving away’ its natural resources? appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joe Biden’s months-long efforts to organize a Gaza war ceasefire and talks intended to secure a sustainable Middle East peace are stalled by a confusing tangle of disparate views between Israel and Hamas – and even within the American administration – about how negotiations should proceed. In almost desperate tones, the Biden administration […]

The post The Gaza peace talks that aren’t appeared first on Asia Times.

Cutting-edge AI-enabled AUKUS drone tests highlight the alliance’s push for tech-driven military superiority but industrial limitations and Chinese market dominance may undermine its readiness for future conflicts. This month, the UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) reported that the AUKUS nations – Australia, the UK and the US – have successfully tested AI-enabled uncrewed […]

The post AUKUS AI drones shadowed by China’s tech supremacy appeared first on Asia Times.

On August 6, 2024, Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border into Kursk province, marking the first invasion of foreign troops into Russian territory since World War II. In the days since, Russian television viewers and social media users have been confronted with images of burned-out houses and captured Russian soldiers. The attack caught the Russian armed […]

The post Kursk incursion wrecks Moscow’s war narrative appeared first on Asia Times.

BANGKOK – A Thai court has ruled Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin breached ethical standards in his appointment of a convicted felon to his Cabinet, knocking the embattled premier from power after less than a year in office and thrusting Thai politics back into relative chaos. The Constitutional Court judged Srettha’s appointment of Phichit Chuenban, jailed […]

The post Srettha’s fall resets Thailand’s topsy-turvy politics appeared first on Asia Times.

TOKYO — As Fumio Kishida bows out of Japanese leadership, let’s first dispense with the spin about why. No, Prime Minister Kishida isn’t falling on his sword because of slush fund scandals. These are about as rare for his Liberal Democratic Party as Tokyoites eating raw fish. What derailed Kishida was an underperforming economy – […]

The post Why Japan’s Kishida finally called it quits appeared first on Asia Times.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is vying with little success to turn stock bears into bulls. But over in the bond market, China faces the opposite problem with irrational exuberance pushing long-term yields too low.

That has authorities scrambling to tighten their grip on the globe’s third-biggest government debt market. On Monday, prices tumbled as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) intervened assertively in the market. It was the worst day in 17 months for China’s 10-year treasury futures, sending yields up 4 basis points.

The recent plunge in bond rates is putting downward pressure on the Chinese yuan at a moment when Xi favors a stable-to-firmer exchange rate. The problem for Xi and the PBOC is that bond bulls argue the rally is supported by underlying fundamentals – including slowing growth and deflationary pressures – and has room to grow.

The post China has a bond vigilante problem appeared first on Asia Times.

During July’s NATO summit, the United States and Germany reached an agreement for the US to start what it referred to as “episodic deployments” of missiles in 2026. This will include Tomahawk cruise missiles, SM-6 ballistic missiles and a new generation of hypersonic systems currently under development. The main condition of the agreement is that […]

The post US-Russia missile race raises Europe’s nuke war risk appeared first on Asia Times.

Elon Musk officially endorsed Donald Trump for president of the United States on July 13, 2024, shortly after Trump survived an assassination attempt. Musk, a billionaire technology entrepreneur, has made groundbreaking contributions in multiple industries, particularly space travel and exploration. Even before Musk’s endorsement, Trump was reportedly considering giving the billionaire an advisory role if […]

The post What Trump-Musk love-in means for US space ambitions appeared first on Asia Times.

This article was first published by Pacific Forum and is republished with kind permission. Read the original here. At the 37th Asia-Pacific Roundtable: Crisis in an Interregnum held in Kuala Lumpur June 4-6, 2024, scholars and practitioners from across the world covered a range of conflicts and disputes in the region. There have been heated debates on […]

The post The world needs to care more about the Mekong appeared first on Asia Times.