Commentary: The report card for Prabowo’s first 100 days? A confused one

By:
On:
In: Asia

Prabowo’s finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, had been talking up the plan for decades. After serving in former senator Joko” Jokowi” Widodo’s government, she stayed on as a sign of stability to the business group. The VAT boost would have been like a stability, as laid out by a 2021 rules.

Prabowo gave in to critics, reversing the entire VAT increase and shifting its focus to luxury goods. Similar to a shift from the Jokowi case, Sri Mulyani and Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto voted in favor of the program, saying that they would support the meals.

PRABOWO’S NEXT 100 DAYS

It’s an interesting comparison to the former president’s personal experiences with premature controversial economic measures.

Only months after his 2014 opening, Jokowi cut the gas payment. Although Jokowi wore it simply despite low-level demonstrations and annual inflation higher than current levels, it was a move that predated him and was introduced during the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono time.

Prabowo’s initial 100 days could be less significant than his future. He suggested last month that provincial primary elections be abolished and that a program be put in place where these positions are chosen by local legislatures.

The idea sparked fears among those who support democracy and those who oppose it, believing that Prabowo’s strongman ambitions are just beginning. Prabowo-aligned parties have already confirmed they would at least” consider” the plan. It may require a revision of the election law, which is already scheduled to be discussed this time.

Erin Cook is a blogger who writes about politics in Southeast Asia and writes the regular Dari Mulut untuk Mulut newsletter. &nbsp, This remark initially appeared on the Lowy Institute’s site, Interpreter.

Continue Reading

Cholas: How a dynasty in India created a cultural and economic superpower

By:
On:
In: Asia
Getty Images The Brihadishvara Temple in Thanjavur. The Brihadishwara Temple was built during the 11th century AD by king Rajaraja Chola I of the Chola Empire. The temple is classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco on July 12, 2016 in Tamil Nadu, India.Getty Images

It’s 1000 CE- the spirit of the Middle Ages.

Europe is in flow. The strong countries that we know today, such as Norman-ruled England and the squabbling regions that will become France, do not yet emerge. Gothic churches with towers have not yet erected. Aside from the remote and rich city of Constantinople, some fantastic industrial centres dominate the landscape.

However, that same year, an Indian prince from southern India was gearing up to construct the largest church in the world.

Completed just 10 years later, it was 216ft ( 66m ) tall, assembled from 130, 000 tonnes of granite: second only to Egypt’s pyramids in height. A 12 foot high Hindu god Shiva sign was enshrined in gold and embellished with gems and pearls at its core.

There were 60 bronze sculptures with thousands of jewels from Lanka, which were adorned in its illuminated house. In its bonds, some kilograms of gold and silver coins, as well as earrings, jewels, trumpets and drums torn from defeated kings across India’s southern coast, making the king the richest person of the time.

He was called Raja-Raja, King of Kings, and he belonged to one of the most remarkable kingdoms of the mediaeval world: the Cholas.

His family altered how the mediaeval world operated, but they are generally unfamiliar outside of India.

Getty Images Shiva as Lord of the Dance, Indian Bronze From Madras, (Chola Dynasty), 10th century. 69 cm high. At Victoria and Albert Museum. LondonArtist Unknown. Getty Images

Prior to the 11th Century, the Cholas had been one among the many fighting power that dotted the Kaveri floodplain, the wonderful system of sand that flows through India’s present-day state of Tamil Nadu. However, what made the Cholas unique was their unending ability for development. By the standards of the feudal earth, Chola queens were likewise extremely popular, serving as the kingdom’s people face.

Travelling to Tamil villages and rebuilding little, old mud-brick shrines in gleaming marble, the Chola duchess Sembiyan Mahadevi – Rajaraja’s great-aunt – properly “rebranded” the home as the main devotees of Shiva, winning them a favorite next.

Sembiyan prayed to Nataraja, a societies little-known variety of Hindu god Shiva as the King of Dance, and all her churches featured him strongly. The pattern persisted. Now, Nataraja is one of Hinduism’s most recognizable images. Nataraja was, however, actually a Cholas mark in the feudal American mind.

With one notable change, the king Rajaraja Chola shared his great-aunt’s love for public relationships and passion.

Rajaraja was even a king. He led his forces over the Western Ghats, a range of hills that protect India’s west coast, in the 990s, and burned the boats of his enemies while they were in interface. Then, he used the inner strife of the island of Lanka to create a Chola outpost that, becoming the first continent Indian king to establish a sustained presence there. Finally, he finally broke into the steep Deccan Plateau, which is where Germany meets Italy on the Tamil coast, and seized a piece of it for himself.

Getty Images Gingee Fort or Senji Fort (also known as Chenji, Jinji or Senchi) in Tamil Nadu, was originally the site of a small fort built by the Chola dynasty during the 9th century CE. The fort was modified by Kurumbar during the 13th century. The fort as it stands today was built in the 15 and 16th centuries by the Nayak Dynasty. The fort passed variously to the Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji in 1677 CE, the Bijapur sultans, the Moghuls, Carnatic Nawabs, the French and then the British in 1761.Getty Images

The treasure of conquest was lavished on his excellent royal church, known now as the Brihadishvara.

In addition to its precious treasures, the great church received 5, 000 tonnes of wheat annually, from conquered province across southern India (you’d have a fleet of twelve Airbus A380s to have that much grain now ).

This allowed the Brihadishvara to function as a mega-ministry of public works and welfare, an instrument of the Chola state, intended to channel Rajaraja’s vast fortunes into new irrigation systems, into expanding cultivation, into vast new herds of sheep and buffalo. Few nations on earth could have imagined economic control on such a large and deep scale.

The Cholas were just as significant to inner Eurasia as the Mongols were to the Indian Ocean. Rajaja Chola’s successor, Rajendra, established alliances with Tamil merchant banks, a partnership between traders and the government that foreshadowed the East India Company, a powerful British trading company that later oversaw large parts of India, that was to follow more than 700 years later.

In 1026, Rajendra sacked Kedah, a Malay city that dominated the world trade in priceless woods and spices, by placing his troops on merchant ships.

While some Indian nationalists have proclaimed this to be a Chola” conquest” or” colonisation” in Southeast Asia, archaeology suggests a stranger picture: the Cholas didn’t seem to have a navy of their own, but under them, a wave of Tamil diaspora merchants spread across the Bay of Bengal.

By the late 11th Century, these merchants ran independent ports in northern Sumatra. A century later, they were deep in present-day Myanmar and Thailand, and worked as tax collectors in Java.

AFP Brihadishwara Temple in Thanjavur, built during the 11th century AD by king Rajaraja Chola I of the Chola Empire. The temple was classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco on July 12, 2016 in Tamil Nadu, IndiaAFP

In the Mongol-ruled China in the 13th century, Tamil merchants operated successful businesses in the port of Quanzhou and even constructed a temple to Shiva on the coast of the East China Sea. It was no coincidence that Tamils made up the majority of Indian administrators and workers in Southeast Asia during the British Raj in the 19th century.

South India, which was the nexus of planetary trade networks, was transformed by Chola-ruled India thanks to globalization and conquests.

Chola aristocrats poured war-loot into a wave of new temples that sourced fine goods from a truly global economy that connects the world’s furthest shores with Asia and Europe. Egypt, or perhaps even Spain, supplied copper and tin for their bronzes. Sumatra and Borneo were the sources of the gods ‘ sandalwood and camphor.

Tamil temples developed into enormous complexes and public spaces, which were surrounded by markets and had rice-estates. In the Chola capital region on the Kaveri, corresponding to the present-day city of Kumbakonam, a constellation of a dozen temple-towns supported populations of tens of thousands, possibly outclassing most cities in Europe at the time.

These Chola cities had an astonishing diversity of religions and were rife with Bengali tantric masters who traded with Lankan Muslims and Chinese Buddhists who rubbed shoulders with Tunisian Jews. Today the state of Tamil Nadu is one of India’s most urbanised. Many of the state’s towns grew around Chola-period shrines and markets.

Getty Images Annamalaiyar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva. The present structure was built during the Chola dynasty in the 9th Century, while later expansions are attributed to Vijayanagar rulers of the Sangama Dynasty (1336-1485 CE), the Saluva Dynasty and the Tuluva Dynasty (1491-1570 CE).Getty Images

These changes in urbanism and architecture were found in literature and art alike.

The artists ‘ appreciation of the human figure rivals Michelangelo or Donatello in the production of medieval Tamil metalwork for Chola-period temples, which is perhaps the finest ever produced by human hands. To praise Chola kings and adore the gods, Tamil poets developed notions of sainthood, history and even magical realism. If the Renaissance had taken place in south India 300 years before its time, you would get what you would get.

It is not a coincidence that Nataraja bronzes, especially Chola bronzes, can be found in the majority of the most significant Western museum collections. They are the remnants of a period of brilliant political developments, of maritime expeditions that spanned the globe, of titanic shrines and incredible wealth, of merchants, rulers, and artists who have shaped the world we live in today.

Anirudh Kanisetti is an Indian writer and author, most recently of Lords of Earth And Sea : A History of The Chola Empire

Continue Reading

Bandwagon to get ancient temple Unesco status grows

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

PUBLISHED: 18 Jan 2025 at 05: 00

Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Woramahawihan.

The government is being prepared to consider to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Chalermchai Sri-on that Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan in Nakhon Si Thammarat be given the support it needs to secure Unesco World Heritage position.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister’s director Apichat Sakdiset announced on Friday that Mr. Chalermchai would send the request to the cupboard for concern on Tuesday.

The nomination was granted on January 15 by the National Committee on the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage ( WHC).

For the church to count for the 2025 large, he said, the standard documents must be submitted to the World Heritage Centre in Paris by February 1.

According to Mr. Apichat, the church, which was constructed in the 13th century CE, is a social identity blog that represents a notable change of spiritual traditions between Brahmin-Hindu, Mahayana Buddhism, and Theravada Buddhism in sea Southeast Asia.

The site has been a center for a special blend of different ideas for roughly 1,500 years, reflecting the powerful connection between the sacred place and the nearby communities.

The inclusion of the church on the preliminary list of ethnic heritage sites was approved by the World Heritage Committee in June 2013.

According to Mr. Apichat, relevant organizations have been actively promoting the Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan’s designation as a World Heritage site for the past ten years.

The state will profit from the increase in cultural tourism, with 500-750 million baht projected to be generated periodically for the state, local communities, and tourism-related businesses once the church has World Heritage status.

Continue Reading

US, China and Diego Garcia’s suddenly uncertain future – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia

What might seem like the end of the last vestiges of European colonization in the Indian Ocean region could well be the start of growing tension between the United States, India, and China.

The British Indian Ocean Territory, which once belonged to Mauritius, will now become a part of the United Kingdom and Mauritius as a result of an agreement reached next October.

Navin Ramgoolam, the newly elected Mauritius government, ordered a review of the contract a month after because it did not provide enough compensation for the island’s unique inhabitants who had been forced to flee.

The Chagos Archipelago’s seven islands split from Mauritius in 1965, and Diego Garcia, the largest of them, was leased to the United States to building a significant, covert military center in the Indian Ocean.

However, the transfer is certain to occur, and it is already thought to be possible to convert the sun-soaked archipelago into a holiday destination similar to the Maldives, which is located about 500 kilometers away.

It’s possible to construct lavish hotels that will draw in high-spending travelers from all over the world. Diving, searching and so-called “eco-friendly” actions are already being touted on life sites referring to the Chagos Archipelago as a “new Island”.

But here lies the geostrategic issue. The UK has pledged to support Mauritius financially in order to build the islands, including a partnership to develop desperately needed infrastructure.

But, because Mauritius is a sovereign nation, it is difficult to think that China will not attempt to finance its own projects on the island, not just because Beijing wants to make the islands an appealing place for Chinese visitors.

That is exactly what has happened in the Island, where Chinese tourists are at the top of tourist arrivals names. China has made significant investments in developing facilities, including a bridge that connects the territories of Hulhule and Hulhumale with Male, the country’s capital. That building has sown political sway, which worries India, the Maldives ‘ traditional development companion and strategic alliance, for the long-term.

Because it lies along the ocean corridors through which its imported oil from the Persian Gulf walks, the Island is carefully essential to China.

With relatively innocent purchase projects, China would have a unique opportunity to observe US defense activities at Diego Garcia.

Diego Garcia would be very important in America’s security of its passions in the Indian Ocean and beyond in the event of a future fight, including a potential military conflict between the United States and China.

China, on the other hand, is&nbsp, rapidly expanding its political and economic, and thus also proper, effect in the Indian Ocean at the cost of the United States and India. And that is why alarms bells are ringing in Washington. &nbsp,

Republican US lawmakers criticized the American authorities for ceding control of the Chagos Archipelago after the deal was announced in October, warning that it would be” a revolution for Chinese interests.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, a member from Texas, and Idaho Senator James Risch, a senior part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, were two of the people who spoke with them. These problems may become more vocal among the numerous well-known China eagles in his Cabinet as Republican Donald Trump approaches the White House.

According to the preliminary Britain-Mauritius agreement, the United States may keep control of Diego Garcia for 99 decades after the transfer.

However, there are already some parallels between Britain’s 1997 transfer agreement with China on Hong Kong, where Beijing pledged to uphold the rule of “one country, two systems” for 50 years before breaking the deal by enraging the once independent English town under its autocratic rule.

To be sure, Mauritius is not China. More than half of the island republic’s population is a product of indentured laborers hired by the British during the colonial era to work on sugar plantations, so relations with India have always been friendly.

Fast forward to the present, as China’s influence expands in the Indian Ocean and Beijing can be seen clearly as a gateway to Africa, where its Belt and Road Initiative and various deals involving the extraction of various natural resources are growing.

Xi Jinping, the president of China, traveled to Mauritius in 2018. At a&nbsp, grand ceremony held in Xi ‘s&nbsp, honor, the Chinese leader said that&nbsp, he looked&nbsp, forward to exchanging views&nbsp, with Mauritius “on bilateral relations and on international and regional issues of mutual concern”.

The first African nation to sign a free trade agreement with China, which was signed in January 2021, was a year later, and it has since had a significant impact on China.

According to&nbsp, the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade, &nbsp, Mauritius’&nbsp, imports from China&nbsp, totaled&nbsp, US$ 993 million in&nbsp, 2023, &nbsp, while&nbsp, its exports to China, despite annual increases, &nbsp, amounted to&nbsp, a&nbsp, mere&nbsp,$ 26.32 million. &nbsp, China has also invested liberally in Mauritian finance, real estate, manufacturing and tourism.

That implies that Mauritius is becoming more and more diplomatically and economically connected to China, making it more profitable and diplomatically.

Outside powers have long sought after the Chagos Archipelago. When Maldivian and European seafarers visited the islands more than 500 years ago, it was uninhabited. The French brought in slaves from its possessions in the area and established coconut plantations on the larger islands.

In 1815, the British took control of the archipelago from Mauritius, the country’s former British colony. The British abolished slavery in 1840, but the coconut plantations remained. Prior to 1965, when Britain purchased the archipelago from Mauritius, the then-self-governing colony, nothing notable happened there.

Three years later, Mauritius was granted full independence from Britain, but with a significant caveat: The British insisted that it would not be able to secede from its territories. It eventually became known as the” British Indian Ocean Territory,” and it became clear why London pressed for the separation.

The agreement between Britain and the United States to convert Diego Garcia, the archipelago’s main island, into a formidable military base would leave the colonial state and give the country a lease on the land. At the same time, the entire population of the archipelago, then consisting of some 1, 000 people, was forcibly evicted and sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles.

Diego Garcia’s strategic location was obvious. It oversees vital shipping lines across the Indian Ocean and gives the US and UK access to East Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia in the event of war or another emergency.

Diego Garcia’s development was also in line with a brand-new US policy known as the” Strategic Islands Concept,” which prohibited military bases from being established close to the populous mainland areas where they could be exposed to anti-Western and anti-American opposition.

Diego Garcia was used to support US-led combat operations in Afghanistan and played an important role as a logistics base in both Gulf Wars in 1990 and 2003. More incontrovertibly, terrorist suspects who had been apprehended in Afghanistan and other locations were sent to Diego Garcia for a far-away “extraordinary rendition” ( extraordinary rendition ) treatment.

The original inhabitants of the archipelago, known as the Chagossians, have for years fought for the right to return home. These demands were repeatedly rejected by the British government.

However, an advisory from the International Court of Justice recommended returning the entire British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius in 2019. The Chagossians, now in second and third generations since their removal from the islands, are reputedly over 10, 000 in number.

The main issue is how Mauritius will govern the archipelago once it joins its republic, and how it will maintain a balance between its relations with China, the United States, and other Indian Ocean powers. Washington is concerned about Chinese expansion into the strategic and increasingly contentious maritime region, not just Washington.

India has always viewed the Indian Ocean as “its lake,” which is struggling to maintain good relations with the occasionally antagonistic Maldives and increasingly unpredictable Mauritius.

Anything can happen if the British leave their final possession “east of Suez,” as the saying goes. However, it would seem naive to assume that China will not attempt to influence the future of the Chagos Archipelago with its growing geostrategic interests in the Indian Ocean.

Bertil Lintner is a Thailand-based journalist, author and security analyst. His most recent book is” The Golden Land Ablaze: Coups, Insurgents and the State in Myanmar”, which can be purchased on Amazon here.

Continue Reading

China pledges to rescue scam gang ‘victims’

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

Thailand helped 900 individuals next year

PUBLISHED: 17 Jan 2025 at 04: 00

China’s public security ministry announced late on Wednesday that it would make every effort to save its citizens who have fallen for scams that have led them to countries like Myanmar.

In a statement from China’s state broadcaster CCTV, the ministry claimed that outside fraud syndicates have duped Taiwanese citizens by promising them high-paying jobs, food, lodging, and airfares and have forced them to live in dens of telecoms fraud across the Thai border from Mae Sot in Tak province.

The report comes after a well-known incident involving a Chinese artist who went missing earlier this month in Tak territory. Wang Xing was a prey of human trafficking, according to Thai police.

According to the CCTV review, China plans to increase work with other nations ‘ law enforcement organizations to organize the save of its members trapped abroad and end the telecoms fraud craze, according to the CCTV report.

It made research to a 2023 campaign to overthrow the racially Chinese gang group known as the Kokang” Four People” along Myanmar’s border with Yunnan province in China.

For near East Asian countries, Foreign visitors are a profitable business, having spent billions of dollars every across the area prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

However, worries about prostitution and tales of people being held captive by criminals on Chinese social media may deter them from choosing to travel it for a vacation or to invest time there.

Thai politicians agreed to” rate up the quality of the issues impacting Thailand’s picture as a safe hospitality place” during a cabinet meeting on Monday, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Thailand assisted in relocating some 900 Chinese nationals who had been stranded in Myawaddy’s fraud centers last year, while Myanmar detained 31, 000 suspects of telecom fraud in 2023.

Chinese state media said at the moment that more than 1, 000 fraud centres had been set up in Myanmar, engaging over 100, 000 people in telecoms fraud everyday.

China’s Premier Li Qiang, in a meeting with the Myanmar junta leader in November, called for mutual efforts to combat cross-border acts, including online gaming and telecommunication scams.

A request for comment was never instantly received by the Myanmar Embassy in China.

” The general public must be competent, develop their own safety measures, and prevent blindly trusting presents of high-paying work overseas to prevent falling into schemes and telecommunication fraud traps”, China’s Ministry of Public Security said.

In order to recover a dozen city residents swindeled into working at scam factories in Southeast Asia, a Hong Kong task force met Thai police and tourism officials in Bangkok on Tuesday. The chief executive applauded the delegation’s progress while the delegation met with the Thai police and tourism officials.

Continue Reading

Over 4 times more youths in Singapore, Vietnam upbeat about domestic politics than Indonesians, Thais: Survey

By:
On:
In: Asia

According to a study by a Singapore research university that was released this month, at least four times more students in Singapore and Vietnam are enthusiastic about the social situations in their respective countries. &nbsp,

According to the study, 72.4 % of Singaporeans and 68.2 % of Vietnamis rate their political situation as “very good” or “good.” This is more than four times the 16.4 % of respondents in Thailand and Indonesia, who had positive opinions of their nation’s political position.

Among Malaysian and Filipino students, 31.9 per share and 25.9 per cent of responders viewed their national elections favorably. &nbsp,

According to the survey of six Southeast Asian nations, the youths of Singapore and Vietnam were the most enthusiastic and content with their individual countries’ social systems, law enforcement, financial conditions, and economic agenda.

The Youth and Civic Engagement in Southeast Asia poll by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute polled 3, 081 students aged 18 to 24 across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. &nbsp,

The university has conducted the survey for the first time in the last two years, polling the students online between August and October.

According to ISEAS, the survey was conducted among students because there has been more youngsters activism on campuses over the years and students have played key roles in bringing about regime change in nations like Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

It wants to include all 10 Asian member countries, target rural and urban differences, and handle differences between level holders and non-degree holders in its second level of analysis. This is the first study in a three-year task.

Continue Reading

China vows to reunite scam victims with families

By:
On:
In: South-East Asia

Officials are working harder to crack down on international criminal gangs.

Described: 16 Jan 2025 at 11: 44

Chinese actor Wang Xing signals he is okay as he rides in a car with police officers returning him from Myanmar to Tak province in Thailand on Jan 7. (Police Photo)
Chinese professional Wang Xing gives the impression that he is fine as he rides in a car with police on Jan 7 returning him from Myanmar to Pun territory in Thailand. ( Police Photo )

China may make every effort to free Foreign citizens who have been luring them to nations like Myanmar, according to the public safety department late on Wednesday.

In a statement from the state broadcaster Video, the government claimed that international fraud syndicates have duped Taiwanese citizens by promising them high-paying jobs, meals, lodging, and airfares and have duped them in telecoms scam dens in towns like Myawaddy in Myanmar, across the Thai border from Mae Sot in Tak province.

A Chinese artist was found safe after going missing earlier this month in Tak state, according to the CCTV record. Wang Xing was a prey of human trafficking, according to Thai officers.

According to the CCTV report, China plans to increase efforts with other nations ‘ law enforcement organizations to organize the rescue of people trapped abroad and end the telecoms fraud craze, according to the CCTV report.

It made research to a 2023 campaign to overthrow the racially Chinese gang group known as the Kokang” Four People” along Myanmar’s border with Yunnan province in China.

For near East Asian countries, Foreign visitors are a profitable business, having spent billions of dollars every across the area prior to the Covid-19 crisis.

However, worries about prostitution and stories about people being held captive by criminals on Taiwanese social media may deter them from choosing to travel it for a holiday.

Thai politicians have agreed to” accelerate up the quality of the issues impacting Thailand’s picture as a safe tourism place” during a cabinet meeting on Monday, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Thailand assisted in the exchange of 900 Chinese nationals who had been stranded in Myawaddy’s fraud centers last year, while Myanmar in 2023 sent over 31, 000 suspects of telecommunication fraud to China.

Chinese state media said at the moment that more than 1, 000 fraud centres had been set up in Myanmar, engaging over 100, 000 people in telecoms fraud everyday.

China’s Premier Li Qiang, in a meeting with the Myanmar junta leader in November, called for mutual efforts to combat cross-border acts, including online gaming and telecommunication fraud.

A request for comment was never instantly received by the Myanmar Embassy in China.

” The general public must be competent, develop their own safety measures, and prevent blindly trusting presents of high-paying work overseas to prevent falling into frauds and telecommunication scam traps”, China’s Ministry of Public Security said.

In order to recover a dozen city residents swindeled into working at scam factories in Southeast Asia, a Hong Kong task force met Thai police and tourism officials in Bangkok on Tuesday. The chief executive applauded the delegation’s progress while the delegation met with the Thai police and tourism officials.

Continue Reading

Eye on Trump, China needs Europe now more than ever – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia

Donald Trump has a talent for confounding and intimidating China. During his first national campaign, he accused China of “raping” the US through unjust trade practices. However, Trump also referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a” good friend” in his first year as US leader.

Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump suggested he may be hard on China in a second word and then, days away from his being leader, little looks likely to change.

Trump has endorsed Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Mark Waltz as national security adviser, and has suggested he could raise taxes on all Foreign items up to 60 %. Both are” China hawks,” who think Washington may take a tougher stance against Beijing and see China as a threat to US national security.

Beijing has tried to adjust to a more difficult US weather, which may be a reason for its recent increases in business with Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Thus, China may become looking to join the West, at least the non-US portion of it, for a range of economic, social and security factors.

Given that Canada is rich in oil, fuel, and iron, the Chinese government might look to Ottawa as a solution to help match China’s electricity needs. It could even warm up to Canberra, as Australia has abundant lithium, which is crucial for making electric vehicles ( EVs ).

China might need to strengthen its connection with the EU in the end, though. The EU holds the distinction of being China’s second-largest buying companion, and export to the EU have soared in the past few years.

This occurred as Beijing pivoted away from manufacturing the “old three” export – home equipment, furniture and clothes – to the tech-intensive “new three”,, which are electric cars, lithium-ion chargers and solar cell.

China’s fresh materials

Since the “new three” indicate an important part in China’s economic development, the EU, as a major consumer of quite products, represents a vital market for China. However, the EU is not an easy earn for China.

Since late October 2024, Beijing has accused Beijing of unfairly subsidizing Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers and has imposed tariffs of up to 45.3 % on these products. There are indications that this is happening, but China does include a lot of room to improve relations with the European Union.

However, the latest controversy over China’s prospective involvement with anchor drag in the Baltic Sea to harm communication cables will not have improved things.

Luckily for China, the EU is not a united front. Voting patterns for Taiwanese electric vehicle tariffs in 2024 reveal an intriguing truth: ten nations backed them, five were opposed, and 12 stopped.

Beijing might affect Brussels ‘ anti-immigration and fence-sitters by lowering entry restrictions for Taiwanese businesses entering the Chinese market and lowering subsidies for Taiwanese businesses competing in Europe.

China and Russia have a” no limits” partnership, which has raised questions for both the West and particularly Europe. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO declared:” The People’s Republic of China’s stated passions and forceful policies challenge our passions, surveillance and values”.

Growing concerns over China’s activities in Europe and Asia may have prompted NATO to invite Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea ( known as the Asia Pacific 4 or AP4), to NATO’s June 2022 summit.

There are becoming more frequent discussions and meetings between the two sides, despite European officials rejecting a formal alliance between NATO and Asian states.

Beijing may assist in resolving one of Europe’s most contentious geopolitical issues, the Ukraine-Russian war, by resolving those concerns, though that seems unlikely. However, an effort to broker a peace agreement might help to lessen the Western’s perception of the” Chinese threat.”

interacting with US

China and the US will continue to communicate. The Western superpower continues to be a technological, economic, and military powerhouse despite being the third-largest trading partner of China after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) and the EU.

Former US president John F Kennedy once wrote:” When written in Chinese, the word” crisis “is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity”.

Trump’s potential impact on China’s economy might not be as significant as first thought if China plays its cards correctly. Trump, after all, is not always predictable.

The University of Nottingham’s assistant professor of business economics is Chee Meng Tan.

The Conversation has republished this article under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Continue Reading

Shot in the arm for China’s aviation hub ambitions as homegrown airlines fly deeper into the European market

By:
On:
In: Asia

The Civil Aviation Administration of China ( CAAC ) approved a number of new routes to European cities in the third quarter of last year for China’s major airlines. These include solutions to Bucharest, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Geneva. &nbsp,

This expansion builds on various road additions in the same time, such as Air China’s Chengdu-Milan services, China Eastern Airlines ‘ direct journey from Shanghai to Marseille, and China Southern Airlines ‘ Guangzhou-Budapest way.

Chinese carriers now occupy the China-Europe way market, according to market data. &nbsp,

Between Nov 27 and Dec 3, a total of 855 planes were operated between China and Europe, reflecting a 21.6 per cent improve year-on-year, as reported by aircraft data platform DAST. &nbsp,

Importantly, over 84 per cent of these airlines were operated by Taiwanese companies, a significant increase from about 60 per cent in 2019.

DIFFERING ACCESS TO RUSSIAN AIRSPACE

According to observers, unequal access to Russian aircraft has been the main motivating factor behind Western airlines ‘ reversals while Chinese ships fly high.

In punitive measure in february 2022, Russia retaliated by excluding Western airlines and a number of other flights from its aircraft as a result of punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. The country’s largest state by land mass almost three years later successfully remains a no-fly zone for Western airlines.

Due to this, they have had to make lengthy, pricey detours, which have tremendously increased flight times and operating costs. In comparison, Chinese companies are also permitted to travel over Russia, attaining a competitive edge.

Prior to the invasion, Scandinavian Airlines ‘ planes from Shanghai to Copenhagen were generally 11 hours long. Following the rerouting, its last journey in November stretched to over 15 days.

According to Bloomfield from Propelo Aviation, the long-tail approach to Continental airlines also runs the risk of overcrowding aircraft in different sectors, which may cause longer flight delays and higher operating costs.

” If you want to go from Europe to Southeast Asia, for example, you go into India or the Middle East, typically flying across Turkey, through the Caucasus, and then around”, he explained. &nbsp,

” When all the airlines are flying the same way, it’s ( manageable ) today, but you could eventually face capacity issues. If you were to put flights, from Beijing for instance, heading west to join that supply, it would further contribute to the gridlock”.

According to Bloomfield, the flight path and levels of energy efficiency are typically ideal. Aircraft may be asked to change their speed or path if airport capability nears its limits, which could have an impact on flight times and gas consumption.

However, the current situation may have possibly lessened those effects because the Chinese airlines now fly over Russia and there are currently fewer European carriers flying to and from China. In any case, Bloomfield noted that there is a cap on the number of times airlines can fly in either place.

In light of this, European carriers face a challenging task of keeping their roads to China, particularly as their Chinese rivals are extremely stepping up from the wings.

European carriers may lose money because the Chinese airlines have” but much” power and are “very intense” with their charges, noted Sobie from Sobie Aviation. &nbsp,
 
” This is further exacerbated by the fact that the ( European ) carriers have longer flights. European companies simply cannot support flights into China in that atmosphere, it’s very clear”.

Analysts are also concerned about whether Chinese Airlines you keep expanding in Europe given the uncertainty surrounding passenger demand.

The “big three” carriers, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, all reported having reported quarterly profits, but their regular income from international routes dropped by about 30 % in the first quarter of 2024.

Continue Reading