Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

The Current Crisis in Sino-US relations: How Deep Can It Be?

Sino-US relations appear to have entered a prolonged period of acute rivalry and growing hostility. The current crisis is the result of a long process of tensions building up. The showdown had been widely expected by both sides for quite a long time, in spite of numerous attempts to avoid or postpone it. For example, […]

Vasily Kashin

Air-Sea Battle , Made in China 2025 , South China Sea , THAAD , trade war , US-North Korea summit

Aug 29,2018 Alternative Scenarios

Security II

Sino-Japan relations, as reported in the mass media over the last several weeks, seem to have positive prospects, accelerated by the fortieth anniversary of the Japan-China Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed on August 12, 1978 and put into effect on October 23, 1978. It was reported by Japanese media early in August that the […]

Yamaguchi Noboru*

“nine-dot line” , BRI , China Dream , FONOPs , South China Sea

Aug 23,2018 National Commentaries

China’s Belt and Road in Southeast Asia between Boons and Bumps

Around five years since China first announced its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—a grand economic vision to construct trade and infrastructure networks connecting parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa—it continues to generate a polarizing mix of optimism and anxiety. In Southeast Asia, which Beijing has considered a central part of the initiative from its inception, […]

Prashanth Parameswaran

BRI , Central Route , Malacca Dilemma , South China Sea

Aug 21,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (April 2018)

China’s foreign relations are under extraordinary flux. Sino-US relations are viewed as more perilous than at any time since 1989 with some even going further back to 1979 or 1972. The often-troubled Sino-Japanese relationship has suddenly appeared to stabilize, as long-sought summits by Japan are presumed to be on track. The Sino-North Korean relationship abruptly […]

Gilbert Rozman

Act East Policy , BRI , Indo-Pacific strategy , inter-Korean summit , Quad , South China Sea , THAAD

Jun 20,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2018)

In the spring of 2018, Chinese experts reacted to the Kim–Trump summit and evaluated the prospects for resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, assessed South Korea’s role in East Asian politics, and evaluated Australia’s increasingly interventionist South China Sea policy. They also examined Trump’s China policy and analyzed how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) […]

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)

AIIB , BRI , Kim-Trump summit , South China Sea , THAAD , US-South Korea alliance

Sep 05,2017 National Commentaries

A Southeast Asian Perspective

The annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and the related ASEAN-plus meetings—a series of ASEAN-led forums involving foreign ministers from 27 nations across the Indo-Pacific—were held from August 2-8, 2017 in Manila, the capital of Philippines which holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member grouping. This year’s meetings marked the grouping’s 50th anniversary. They are the […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*

ARF , ASEAN Way , BRI , concentric multilateralism , EAS , hedging , Nine-dash line , North Natuna Sea , South China Sea

Aug 30,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2017)

Trump’s shadow hung heavily over summer developments in East Asia, as covered in Japan’s media. There was talk of US isolation, retreat in leadership, and failure in managing North Korea. Yomiuri on July 31 cited press accounts abroad without any heartening news for the Japanese public; explanations ranged beyond Trump to the broader US society—inequality, […]

Editorial Staff

ARF , comfort women , Donald Trump , history war , Kono Taro , Senkaku Islands , South China Sea

Aug 23,2017 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 5, No. 4

A relatively quiet summer for think tanks was punctuated by an unusual degree of trepidation about developments in the Asia-Pacific region and US policy responses. Discussions in early summer, when US-South Korean relations appeared threatened, gave way to warnings in August about US-North Korean tensions that could lead to conflict as well as Sino-US relations, […]

Editorial Staff

BRI , East China Sea , KORUS FTA , OBOR , South China Sea , THAAD , TPP , trilateralism , Trump-Moon summit , Trump-Xi Summit

Jul 29,2017 Special Forum

Introduction

Over the summer of 2017, all eyes have been on the Northern Tier of Asia: North Korean relations with the United States, Sino-US relations and the Korean Peninsula, US-ROK relations, and Japan as a factor in these cases with Russia occasionally entering the picture. The Trump effect further south in Asia has drawn much less […]

Editorial Staff

BOR , BRI , Donald Trump , freedom of navigation , Malabar naval exercise , South China Sea , TPP

Jul 29,2017 Special Forum

ASEAN

For Southeast Asia, the halcyon days of the Obama “pivot,” which saw the president initiate the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, accede to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation on the way to joining the East Asia Summit, and visit almost all Southeast Asian countries (the only exception was Brunei, which he would have visited […]

Liow Joseph Chinyong*

APEC summit , BRI , Donald Trump , FONOPs , South China Sea , TPP , UNCLOS , US-ASEAN Summit