Beijing opened 2026 with a clear signal on Taiwan. In his New Year message, Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated the establishment of Taiwan Retrocession Day on October 25 and called reunification ...

China–Japan relations have entered their most troubled period since normalisation in 1972, driven less by temporary diplomatic friction than by deepening structural rivalry over Taiwan, military ...

ASEAN’s decades-long growth model built on openness, regional integration and embeddedness in global supply chains is under strain from US–China rivalry, trade protectionism, development divides and ...

On 4 May 2026, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a map indicating a zone of Iranian authority over a large area of the Strait of Hormuz, covering a large part of both Oman’s and the ...

Lucky Christ Nugroho is an official at Bank Indonesia, the central bank of Indonesia. He is currently serving as a Junior Economist at the Economic and Monetary Policy Department. He earned a bachelor ...

China and Gulf states are increasingly partnering to deploy renewable energy projects across the Global South, combining Chinese manufacturing dominance with Gulf financial and diplomatic influence.

Singapore is not typically seen as a middle power, but its economic strength, global connectivity and proactive diplomacy have enabled it to exert influence beyond its size. The city-state has ...

China’s April 2026 emissions assessment measures carry the weight of Beijing’s highest institutional authority, giving new force to its carbon neutrality agenda. By allocating targets across ...

In South Korea, marginal part-time work has risen sharply as stronger enforcement of worker protections above a 15-hour weekly threshold has made those protections more binding in practice. As ...

Following the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s higher education system has fractured, with military-controlled universities widely rejected. In response, ethnic education providers and ‘Spring Universities’ have ...

Global AI governance has shifted from frontier risk mitigation towards development outcomes, with India’s 2026 AI Safety Summit centring the agenda around the Global South. While India has positioned ...

The Philippines was the first country to declare a national energy emergency following the February 2026 US–Israel attacks on Iran, exposing its dependence on imported oil and the limits of its ...