Azië-Pacific

Analysis

Money, Power and Politics at the WHO

7 October 2020 -

Fien Van den Steen takes a look at the geopolitics that shaped the WHO’s manoeuvring throughout the global coronavirus pandemic.

Interview

Maria Ressa: "Courts are being used by Duterte's regime in a lawfare against free media"

16 June 2020 -

The clash between media and power is brutal in the Philippines. The real target is free speech, but the symbolic head that has to hang belongs to Maria Ressa, journalist, entrepreneur and initiator of the successful newssite Rappler. MO* had an exclusive interview with her when the coronacrisis began. The verdict in one of the court cases against h ...

Report

Farmers behind bars in Thailand because they grow cassava

2 July 2019 -

Today Narissara Muangklang may have to go to prison. Her crime? Growing cassava on the land where this has been done for generations, but now it has to be reforested. Farmers against climate generals? Reality is a lot more cynical. Gie Goris reports from Thailand.

Blog Post

When civil society speak, will leaders from Asia and Europe listen?

16 October 2018 -

Mid October leaders of states from Asia and Europe will meet in Brussels, as part of the Asia Europe summit which happens every two years. In its wake, civil society meet at the Asia Europe People’s Forum, as do business representatives and other lobbying groups

Opinion

The militarisation of the South China Sea is too dangerous for simplicities

13 September 2016 -

The recent ruling by the UNCLOS Court of Arbitration in the Hague on the case brought by the Philippines has denied China’s claim to historic rights in the South China Sea. The implications could be serious and the ruling may turn out to be the turning point not only for the Asia Pacific but also in the wider world order.

Interview

Chinese Political Scientist Yan Xuetong: 'China should allow more freedom of expression'

11 March 2016 -

John Vandaele had the opportunity to talk with professor Yan Xuetong, one of the leading political thinkers of China. Yan is well known for his outspokenness, even when his vision does not correspond with the ideology of the party. One thing is clear: from Beijing the world looks different.

Analysis

Indonesia: An archipelago of opportunities

1 May 2014 -

Indonesia has been living in the shadow of the Asian giants China and India. From now on, though, the Southeast-Asian nation has the ambition to become one of the emerging powers of the 21th century on it's own merits. With 250 million inhabitants, an expected economic growth of 5.7 percent this year and a gross domestic product of more than a tril ...

News

Experiments in democracy

12 February 2014 -

China’s free market is doing fine, thank you. A free market without a free market in ideas, otherwise known as democracy, works. Some Western politicians seem to think that, simply by mimicking that system, they will be able to compete with the Chinese on an equal footing. Both premise and conclusion are flawed.

News

To change course touches the powers that be

30 April 2013 -

Some things change fast. Very fast. Despite predictions that it wouldn’t happen before 2040, China is, according to some analyses, already the world's largest economy. It is certainly the biggest exporter, and in East Asia, the renminbi is snapping at the dollar's heels. However, the country's growth exposes a lack of social and ecological su ...

Opinion

Rising Asia and Old Europe need to work together

11 April 2012 -

Tempting as it may be, it would be wrong to write off Europe as yesterday’s power. Europe still matters even though this is not the message some EU policymakers have been sending out to a watching world.

Analysis

Angry Fragile World

15 December 2011 -

Three years after the debts volcano on Wall Street erupted, we can see more clearly what happened: a crisis of neoliberal globalization.

News

When the big river floods, the little rivers get filled

26 January 2009 -

China is growing, but do the Chinese that produce our clothes, shoes, mobiles and laptops profit from it? Is it true, in other words, that globalization gives chances to the labouring people in developing countries? In september 2008, just before the onset of crisis, John Vandaele went to the Pearl River Delta, where twenty million migrant worke ...