Author: Francesca Chiu, University of Hong Kong

In 2016 in a village in Gansu, one of China’s poorest provinces, Yang Gailan killed herself and her four children after she had been denied official anti-poverty assistance for a second year. Read more…

Author: Dániel Balázs, Tongji University

China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sets the bar high. It strives to connect Asia, Africa and Europe with the aim of achieving mutual development. Sri Lanka, with its valuable geographic position in the heart of the Indian Ocean, is a crucial participant in Beijing’s newest endeavor. Read more…

Author: Dong Dong Zhang, ANU

The US–China trade deal announced on 12 May is another clear sign of warming official relations between the United States and China. The deal is an early harvest of the 100 day plan that Xi proposed to Trump to help the United States expand its exports to China. Read more…

Author: Allan Gyngell, ANU

When the Australian government announced plans for a foreign policy White Paper to provide a ‘comprehensive framework to guide our international engagement over the next 5 to 10 years’, it must have known what a difficult task it had set itself. Read more…

Author: Galen Murton, University of Colorado

April 2017 marked the two-year anniversary of the powerful earthquakes that devastated Nepal and set the stage for China to act as a global humanitarian player. The earthquakes inflicted significant damage in Nepal’s central and northern districts and motivated Beijing to mobilise its largest-ever humanitarian effort on foreign soil. Read more…

Author: Bingqin Li, UNSW

China’s hukou (household registration) system is often criticised for hindering the free movement of labour and creating inequality. In recent years the hukou system has undergone considerable reform. But is this enough to turn around the trends in China’s regional inequality? Read more…

Authors: Tao Kong, Peking University and Pierre van der Eng, ANU

In January 2017, the head of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Thomas Lembong announced that Indonesia received US$2.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) from China during 2016. With FDI from Hong Kong included, this figure rises to an unprecedented US$4.9 billion. Read more…