Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
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: 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…
Author: Editors, East Asia Forum
In Beijing yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted a global summit on his Belt and Road Initiative under the aegis of the National Development Reform Commission’s (NDRC) China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), NDRC’s top think tank. This is part of a massive exercise in international diplomatic communication.
Author: James Laurenceson, ACRI
Australia’s reluctance to participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) harks back to its slow entry into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). But this time it may be Australian state governments that push the federal government over the line, rather than decisions made by other countries.
Author: Mira Käkönen, University of Helsinki
A striking feature of climate change governance in Cambodia is the absence of key economic, political and socio-ecological processes in policy documents and discourse. Cambodia has been a frontrunner in several mainstreaming policies as well as adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the region. But the ease with which international climate policy discourse is being appropriated by the national government can instead be understood by looking at the dynamics of resource extraction — an industry that forms the wealth base for the country’s elite. Read more…
Author: Editors, East Asia Forum
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead; the largest free-trade zone in the world, the European Union, has splintered; and the global economy is on the way to notching up a decade of sub-par growth in trade and output following the global financial crisis.
