Politics

Reading Time: 3 minutes Author: Xiaoli Guo, ANU Since the start of the Russia–Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, questions about China’s stance on the conflict have proliferated. So far, China’s preference is clear…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Daniel Sneider, Stanford University The election of former prosecutor general Yoon Suk-yeol as president of South Korea creates an opportunity to break the impasse in South Korea–Japan relations. President-elect…

Reading Time: 3 minutes Author: Sajjad Ashraf, Singapore After months of intense politicking, Pakistan’s opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam — lodged a motion of ‘no confidence’ in…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Robin Vochelet, NUS Days before his 70th birthday on 10 February, Lee Hsien Loong announced that he wouldn’t be stepping down from his position as Singaporean Prime Minister. Lee…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Danilo Araña Arao, University of the Philippines Diliman The Philippine election system includes a party-list system intended to ensure that 20 per cent of House of Representatives seats are…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Editorial Board, ANU South Koreans will head to the polls to elect a new president this Wednesday, 9 March. With campaigning characterised by mudslinging and populist rhetoric, the contest…

Reading Time: 3 minutes Author: Myungji Yang, University of Hawai’i Five years after the Candlelight Revolution in South Korea, the effervescence, spirit of solidarity and optimism for social change have faded away. When millions…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Gennady Rudkevich, Georgia College The main result of the January 2022 Kazakhstan protests was to solidify the transfer of power from Nursultan Nazarbayev to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev that began with…

Reading Time: 3 minutes Author: Hai Hong Nguyen, UQ According to a recent report by Transparency International, Vietnam’s corruption levels significantly decreased in 2021, down to 87th most corrupt from 104th in 2020. But…

Reading Time: 4 minutes Author: Ronald May, ANU In Papua New Guinea (PNG), as in many countries, the dominant narrative in 2021 was COVID-19. The outbreak of the pandemic posed a threat to PNG,…