9 h. ago From ‘hell’ to Asean: East Timor’s president talks growth, China and the future

In East Timor’s presidential palace in the capital Dili, President Jose Ramos-Horta leans back in his chair, radiating a calm demeanour ahead of a momentous occasion in his country’s young history. “We are in the last few hours before joining Asean,” he told This Week in Asia. “Looking back, it has been a 23-year journey since independence was proclaimed and when I look at where we were then compared to now, it is like heaven and hell.” On Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, East Timor is set to formally...

Politics

10 h. ago ASEAN to host Trump at summit as US and China seek to avert trade war escalation

ASEAN to host Trump at summit as US and China seek to avert trade war escalation  Reuters

Politics

5 d. ago Asian Angle | Caught in the crossfire: how Asean can survive a US

Asian Angle | Caught in the crossfire: how Asean can survive a US-China economic cold war  South China Morning Post

Events

9 d. ago China–ASEAN at a Crossroads: Navigating Regional Futures in an Era of Great Power Competition

China–ASEAN at a Crossroads: Navigating Regional Futures in an Era of Great Power Competition  Asia Society

Politics

2 w. ago How joining the RCEP will boost Hong Kong’s role as a superconnector

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is the world’s largest trade bloc. Including all 10 economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), mainland China, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, the group contributes to 30 per cent of global gross domestic product and over 25 per cent of global exports. In September, Asean’s economic ministers issued a joint statement affirming their desire to accelerate the addition of four new members into the RCEP –...

Politics

3 w. ago US tariffs will cost Asean billions in lost trade, UN says. Is China the answer?

Southeast Asia is set to be the region hardest hit by American tariffs, according to a new UN report, with observers saying the fallout could push Asean deeper into China’s orbit as the US raises the price of entry to its vast consumer market. The report from the United Nations Development Programme forecasts a 6.4 per cent slump in exports to the United States from the wider Asia-Pacific, driven by price increases from tariffs. But for Southeast Asia – a linchpin in global supply chains and a...

Economics

4 w. ago China’s ethnic affairs chief hails Xinjiang policies in Xi’s ‘new era’

China’s top official overseeing ethnic and religious affairs has saluted Beijing’s approach to Xinjiang over the past decade, bookending a landmark trip by President Xi Jinping to the region to mark its founding. Addressing a major event in Urumqi on Thursday for the 70th anniversary of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Wang Huning said that over the decades, especially since “the new era” – the period after Xi took power in 2012 – people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang had “continuously...

Events