About Asia

Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s current defence minister, has won the presidential election by a wide margin, according to unofficial, but historically accurate quick count results. But there are lingering concerns about Prabowo related to past allegations of human rights abuses. In this episode of About Asia, we speak with Jacqui Baker of Murdoch University about the president-elect’s successful shift from fiery populist to a grandfatherly figure.

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest musical acts in the world – and she’s coming to Singapore in 2024, along with Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Coldplay. For decades, so-called “world tours” have skipped much of Asia, but how has the tide of concert tourism changed? We sat down with Post reporter Kimberly Lim to discuss more.

Read more on this: https://sc.mp/oh50b

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made the South its “principal enemy” in proposed changes to the country’s constitution. He has also ended hopes of reunification, while intensifying missile tests. Is the Korean peninsula on the brink of war? Former CIA analyst and North Korean expert Soo Kim has more.

Read the full story: https://sc.mp/u6mb

One year after Russia's disastrous attempt to invade Ukraine and overthrow its government, Vladimir Putin finds his military bogged down in a stalemate, and his nation economically and diplomatically isolated. Yet one ally stands with Russia: one year after declaring a "no limits" friendship, Xi Jinping is about to announce a 'peace plan'. But how has China's reticence to condemn Russia's war changed its relationship with Europe? And what is Beijing getting out of the Sino-Russian relationship…

Kinling Lo analyses a change of tone amid a staff change for Beijing’s senior diplomats; Rob Delaney on the future of US-China relations with Kevin McCarthy as Speaker; Zhou Xin reveals the deeper complexity of South Korean and Japanese  involvement in US chip sanctions; Kandy Wong reports on a series of moves showing China might be ending its sanctions on Australian coal, barley, wine and lobsters; and a Chinese-Australian partnership in lithium mining and processing.

Brussels-based SCMP correspondent Finbarr Bermingham recaps how Russia’s Ukraine invasion changed Europe’s relationship with China, and previews how the EU may change its tact to Chinese investment and trade; London-based correspondent Chad Bray analyses UK PM Rishi Sunak’s changing tone on China and the year ahead for HSBC; Lucio Blanco Pitlo III looks at Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s visit to Beijing and the dawn of “durian diplomacy”. as he balances US security and Chinese…

Post reporter Jack Lau analyses the energy and weapons deals signed by Saudi Arabia and China during Xi Jinping’s visit to Riyadh; hear about the historic Arab-China summit, and China’s push to expand the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; New York-based reporter Khushboo Razdan discusses Joe Biden’s “America first” push, in a week where Taiwan’s TSMC opened its first US semiconductor plant and the EU agreed to subsidise its own vehicle industry to compete with Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. …

How has the death of China’s former president Jiang Zemin inspired nostalgic memories of a different era of Beijing-Washington ties? Post North America bureau chief Rob Delaney gives his analysis on that, and reports on the spread of zero-Covid protests by Chinese students at US college campuses. Europe correspondent Finbarr Bermingham reports in increasing friction among European allies over the Biden administration’s efforts to curb China’s access to semiconductors and its role in the global…

Kinling Lo reports from Bali after three days of speeches and sideline meetings, including the first face-to-face talks of presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden since China-US ties worsened. Shi Jiangtao looks at the optics of Xi’s mask-free public appearance; what China watchers are saying was achieved in Xi’s meetings with Biden and other world leaders; and whether they signal a change in the US-China narrative or merely a ray of light in the storm.

Asia desk editor Bhavan Jaipragas previews a crucial Asean summit that will include US President Joe Biden sparring for relevance amid soaring Chinese investment in Southeast Asia, the ongoing Myanmar crisis, and tumultuous Malaysian elections. Political economy reporter Kandy Wong reports on China’s plan to expand private security forces overseas to protect its Belt and Road investments, and a special meeting in Beijing encouraging US multinationals to invest in China.