Asia-Pacific – Page 54 – IDN-InDepthNews

Asia-Pacific2016-05-192023-07-10

Asian UN Body Calls for Paradigm Shift in Development Thinking

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – The major United Nations agency overseeing development in the Asia-Pacific region has called for a major rethink in the development paradigm for the region.

In an ‘Economic and Social Survey’ of the region presented to its 72nd sessions here from May 17 to 19, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says that while the centre of global economic gravity continues to move eastwards, the time has come for the Asia-Pacific region to adopt a development model that relies more on domestic and regional demand.

Arguing that it is futile to continue the exclusive reliance on export-led development, ESCAP is also calling for more rural agriculture and industrial development, with better rural-urban connectivity via transport and communication links.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-302023-07-10

India Sends Mixed Messages to Beijing and Washington

Analysis by Shastri Ramachandaran*

BEIJING (IDN) – If New Delhi’s intention is to keep Beijing and Washington guessing as to who it favours, then the mixed signals during recent high-level exchanges with both are right on point. Neither Washington nor Beijing can, at a given stage or on a specific issue, say with any certainty which way New Delhi may swing.

The matter of mixed signals is best illustrated by developments surrounding the second visit of U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to New Delhi; the three-high-level official exchanges between India and China – two in Beijing and one in Moscow; and, the wholly avoidable flip-flop in first granting and then revoking the visa to Dolkun Isa, whom Beijing says is a terrorist leader.

Earlier in April, India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was in China on a five-day visit. Parrikar’s visit was not only a high-level one, but the first by a defence minister in the National Democratic Alliance government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was received at a high level and had meetings with his Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan of the People’s Liberation Army and top defence officials.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-272023-07-10

China Triggers Regional Divisions On South China Sea

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Announcement by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the Laotian capital Vientiane on April 23 that a four-point agreement has been reached with three ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) member states on the disputes over some islands, rocks and shoals in the South China Sea (SCS) ahead of a China-ASEAN summit in Singapore, has exposed divisions among the 10-member regional grouping on the issue.

The SCS dispute which first entered ASEAN forums during the 2010 ASEAN Summit in Vietnam, when the then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the issue during a speech, has increased in intensity in recent years with the U.S. and Japan along with its ally the Philippines fanning the flames, while China has responded with some aggressive moves of its own.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-112023-07-10

Oh China, Please Come Back Ye…

Analysis by Dr Palitha Kohona*

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (IDN) – As Sri Lanka, with an administration now in power for over one year, begins to confront complex domestic and international challenges, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe undertook a visit to Beijing.

Unthinkable just a few months ago with orchestrated anti China rhetoric flooding the media, he joined other world leaders who had already lined up outside the gates of Beijing seeking manna from the Middle Kingdom. At the conclusion of the visit on April 10, he spoke effusively of the potential for cooperation between the two countries.

So what caused the change? The visit was billed as an initiative to reassure the Chinese that Sri Lanka remained a reliable global partner, it is a welcoming destination for Chinese investors and tourists, and it will honour its contractual obligations to Chinese concerns made by the previous administration and it may have achieved at least some of its goals.

Asia-Pacific2016-04-012023-07-10

Nepal Between the Dragon and the Elephant

Analysis by Shastri Ramachandaran

MUMBAI (IDN) – Yet another South Asian country, Nepal, is falling for the charms of China. The language of this new dalliance, regardless of where it may lead, is causing unease in India. Arriving in Beijing on March 20 for a week-long visit, Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that his country’s relationship with China was “as high as the Himalayas”, which he said symbolised friendship.

In what could be a red rag to New Delhi, Oli called China an “all-weather friend”, a term loaded with China’s value for Pakistan as a deterrent against India. China-Pakistan friendship, however, has moved to a higher realm — that of “iron brothers forever”, as Chinese President Xi Jinping underscored on his first state visit to Pakistan in April 2015. The parallel with Pakistan does not end there.

Asia-Pacific2016-03-242023-07-10

China’s Release of Mekong Waters Reflects an Environmental Crisis

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the fifth in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN | Lotus News Features) – China would like to project the release of Mekong River waters from its dams in March to “assist” drought-stricken farmers and fisheries further downstream, especially in Vietnam, as a magnanimous gesture from a friendly neighbour. But that action is in fact the reflection of a greater environmental and political crisis that is brewing in the region.

China announced middle of March that in response to a Vietnamese request, it will discharge from March 15 to April 10 water from the Jinghong hydropower station on the Mekong River in Yunnan province to the lower reaches of the Mekong River to alleviate drought in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Asia-Pacific2016-03-052023-07-10

India and China can Rescue Asian Century from Oblivion

BEIJING (IDN | INPS) – One term which gained currency in the millennium’s first decade was ‘Asian Century’. The term represented a promise, a prospect and a goal; and, invariably, was used with optimism. For a while, it was as evocative as the term ‘21st century’ was in the 1980s, replete with visions of new vistas of life, living and development far removed from the poverty, deprivation and tribulations suffered by the world’s oppressed majority in the 20th century.

When the 21st century was actually upon us, much of the romantic yearning for it had ceased. Similarly, invocation of ‘Asian Century’ ceased to resonate with the aspirations it brought to mind. It came to be used less frequently, especially in capitals such as Beijing and New Delhi.

Asia-Pacific2016-03-042023-07-10

Jade Industry Key to Democratic Reform in Myanmar

This article is the third in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

SINGAPORE (IDN | Lotus News Features) – As a new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi takes over in Myanmar this month (March), reforming the country’s jade mining industry and ensuring that the benefits flow to the people and the national coffers would be the litmus test of its democratic credentials.

Many people tend to conclude that having a free and fair multi-party election and a long serving government being overthrown by the peoples’ verdict is the ultimate test of a country’s flowering of democracy. But, in today’s globalized economic system that by itself is not enough.

Asia-Pacific2016-02-062023-07-10

Migrant Workers Help Singapore Students Gain a Global Perspective

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Government statistics show that in this affluent Southeast Asian nation, one in three workers are migrants. They build the modern infrastructure, clean the buildings, cook and serve in restaurants, look after the children and elderly at home, while often being paid very poorly and treated shabbily and looked at suspiciously by the locals.

Beginning with the 2013 Little India riots where hundreds of Indian workers attacked police vehicles to the recent arrest of 27 Bangladeshi workers suspected of having links to Islamic terrorist groups, there has been much tension in the community with regards to migrant workers. As one law student put it: “We only find out about migrant workers through second hand sources which does not really say who they are.”

Asia-Pacific2016-01-292023-07-10

Sri Lanka Turning Anew into a Geo-Political Battle Ground

SINGAPORE (IDN) – On January 8, 2015 when President Mahinda Rajapakse’s former Cabinet colleague Maithripala Sirisena defeated his old boss in a shock election result campaigning on heralding a non-corruptible ‘yahapalana’ (good governance) regime, people of Sri Lanka took a deep breath, some with euphoric expectations and others with fears of war and terrorism re-visiting the now peaceful island.

Mixed reviews of the anniversary in local newspapers agree that there is a better climate of freedom especially in the media. But it is another question whether democracy and media freedom could eradicate corruption from the political system.