Opinion

LINGERING malaise in South Korea is beginning to remind observers of Japan in the early 1990s as that country embarked on two decades of stagnation . . .

CHINA’s Silk Roads concept offers sackcloth and ashes to those not toeing the Chinese line (witness Japan and the Philippines). These land and sea roads are all about restoring China’s greatness and superiority . . .

THE much-touted Free Trade Agreement between China and South Korea is not all it seems – but it serves other purposes for both countries . . .

DOES Taiwan want a complete break from China – regardless of the price? The people may decide in 2016 . . .

LOWER oil prices could be a passing phenomenon. As more energy projects are stalled or mothballed, what price will future consumers be asked to pay? 

THE China initiative for a Free Trade Zone for Asia-Pacific reinvents the APEC Bogor Declaration of 20 years ago – and that went simply nowhere . . .

ASIA is about to embrace a series of painful reforms which will bring uncertainty and change. Asia’s world has changed . . .

MUCH of the geo-political risk existing today stems from strong political leadership – or the lack of it . . .

LEE HSIEN LOONG has been progressively softening the image of the Singapore he inherited from his autocratic father, Lee Kuan Yew. Working parents now qualify for kindergarten subsidies, and senior citizens, born before 1949, have been dubbed the Pioneer Generation, qualifying for unlimited healthcare and GST subsidies . . .

JOKOWI’s tenure as President will depend on his political cunning, his ability to negotiate the Indonesian Parliament and, perhaps, the whims of his Party’s matriarch, Megawati Sukarnoputri . . .