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By Pattama Vilailert *
BANGKOK (IDN) – On New Year's Eve of 2020 when the Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) of strange pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Thailand's tourism industry, the country's primary gross domestic product (GDP) driver, was facing an unprecedented boom. But, six months later, the industry is on its knees with knowledgeable sources predicting a lengthy recovery period.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – A battle is brewing up between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Victorian State Premier Daniel Andrews over an agreement the latter has signed with China to link his state with the joint infrastructure development to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added fuel to the conflict on May 24 in an interview with Rupert Murdoch owned Sky News when he said if Victoria joined the BRI, the US could "simply disconnect" from Australia.
A Grassroots Movement of Local Actions Has Been Credited for Success.
Viewpoint by Dan Sanchez
The writer is the Director of Content at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the editor of FEE.org. The article was originally published on FEE.org. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
ATLANTA, GA | U.S. (IDN) – Japan's nationwide state of emergency was officially lifted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 25, who declared COVID-19 to be under control in the country. In his announcement of the move, Abe said, "Recently, new infection cases have fallen below 50 for the entire nation, and what was once nearly 10,000 hospitalized cases — that has now fallen below 2,000."
Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn *
NEW DELHI (IDN) – Since time immemorial, humanity has confronted natural disasters and pandemics continually, and yet survived. But COVID-19 is unique in the sense that it has shaken and stirred both the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the world to the core. With over 5.9 million COVID-19 cases and over 362,000 deaths globally, the very experience is the most overwhelming in our living memory.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
This article is the 41st in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.
SYDNEY (IDN) – At a time when the United States is ramping up its rhetoric against China triggering a new Cold War between the world's leading superpowers, India is increasingly being wooed by the U.S. to join them to pressure China. In recent weeks there have been some minor skirmished between Chinese and Indian forces on the border in the Himalayas.
In this scenario, former Indian diplomat Phunchok Stobdan's book on the Buddhist Himalayas is very timely.
Viewpoint by James Laurenceson
The author is Professor and Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at The University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This article first published on May 24 in EastAsiaForum, is part of an EAF special feature series on the novel coronavirus crisis and its impact.
SYDNEY (IDN) – In 2016, the Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Peter Jennings warned that "if Beijing wants to adopt politically coercive policies, it's in a fairly strong position to do so with us because of that level of trade dependence".
Viewpoint by C Raja Mohan
The writer is Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies at The National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on 19 May 2020. A longer version is available in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Middle Power Game’, Vol. 12 No. 1.
SINGAPORE (IDN) – At a time when much of Asia is reconciling itself to the regional dominance of China and increasing political distance from the United States, India is going the other way — moving into an ever-closer partnership with the United States and making a more intensive effort to balance China in the Indo-Pacific.
Viewpoint by Vijay Prashad*
This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
KOLKATA, India (IDN) – On March 20, just after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11, the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) sent a cable to U.S. State Department instructing officials how they should speak about China and the novel coronavirus, according to the Daily Beast, which obtained the cable.
Viewpoint by Vijay Gokhale
This article by a former Foreign Secretary of India and a former Ambassador to China first appeared on The Hindu on 20 March 2020. It is republished because of an insider's view of the changing nature of China's diplomacy characterised by unilateralism and a one-size-fits-all approach. "China, post-COVID-19, will be operating in a very different external environment."
TORONTO (IDN) – If U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that if you “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far”, half a century later and many thousands of miles away, another man practised it. His name was Zhou Enlai.
By Yadul Krishna*
NEW DELHI (IDN) – The left-ruled Indian State of Kerala remains in the global spot for its effective and efficient measures in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The state subjugated the Indian news headlines, projecting its potential, strength and humane approach to the outer world, leaving an operative model that other states can follow.
The government’s apt and adaptive state-interventionist strategy even garnered widespread attention across the world, with international media and academic journals, including that of MIT and Oxford, praising the robustness of the ‘Kerala Model’ of development.
This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.
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