World

Nothing special here The economy is facing many challenges resulting from worsening global economic conditions. To handle the situation, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha last week signed an order to set up another committee. The latest one -- termed a special committee -- is meant to help steer government efforts in mitigating impacts of the economic crisis. The special committee comprises five deputy prime ministers and five ministers of the finance, agriculture, transport, industry and interior ministries. In addition, permanent secretaries from seven ministries, the governor of the Bank of Thailand, the secretary general of the National Economic and Social Development Council and secretary general of the National Security Council (NSC) are also members of the committee. Gen Prayut he...

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “All things change, and we change with them.” None other than Beijing has robustly applied this axiom in its foreign policy domain and in particular, it is glaring in China’s relations with Pakistan. Days after Imran Khan was ousted from the prime ministerial office in the second week of April and Pakistan Muslim League leader Shehbaz Sharif was handed over reign of power, Pakistan Foreign Office received a diplomatic communication through Beijing-based Pakistan Ambassador Moin ul Haque. The diplomatic cable received by the Pakistan Foreign Office on June 10, said that China has offered to extend $2.3 billion at a much-reduced interest rate. Pakistani daily, The News International which leaked the communication between the Beijing-based Pakistan Am

The anti-dumping duties are extended for five years beginning from Jul 23, it said in a statement. The anti-dumping duty rates are set at 39 per cent to 45.7 per cent for Japanese firms including JFE Steel and Nippon Steel, 37.3 per cent for Korean companies and 46.3 per cent for EU firms. China, the world's top steel producer launched an anti-dumping investigation in June last year into grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel from Japan, South Korea and the EU following the expiry of tariffs in place for the past five years. The tariffs were reinstated during the year-long investigation. The move followed a petition by steelmakers China Baoshan Iron and Steel and a unit of Beijing Shougang which argued that ending the tariffs could lead to further dumping, hurting the dom...

Seoul, South Korea:   As other close allies of the US – including Japan, Australia and the European Union – long ago joined in and announced their own Indo-Pacific guidelines and strategies, a number of pundits saw the move by the newly inaugurated Yoon administration as a clear sign that South Korea was choosing to get closer to the US rather than China. Seoul is expected to join a proposed US-led chip alliance known as the “Chip 4” initiative, which also includes Japan and Taiwan, said Erika Na. South Korea needs to devise a “strategy that fits into the gap” between the United States and China’s hegemonic race in the Indo-Pacific region, according to analysts. Their recommendation comes after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol revealed a plan in May to formulate the c

Taipei, Taiwan:The trade office is likely to be at the World Trade Center near Taipei 101 in Xinyi District, as per reports.Legislative Speaker You Si-kun had invited Lithuanian Seimas Speaker Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen to visit Taiwan in September or October, Taipie Times reported.Meanwhile, China on Friday protested against Lithuania for welcoming the delegation, stating it contravenes its “one China” principle.“China expresses its strong protest and firm objection to this,” the Office of the Charge d’Affaires of the People’s Republic of China in the Republic of Lithuania said in a statement.“China urges Lithuania … to abide by the political commitment of the one-China principle, not to send a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces,” it said, as cited by Taipie Times.T

Tokyo, Japan:  In the latest annual report Japan has accused China and expressed grave concerns  for trying to change the status quo and increasing the tension.“China continues to unilaterally change or attempt to change the status quo by coercion in the East China Sea and South China Sea. China has made clear that it would not hesitate to unify Taiwan by force, further increasing tensions in the region,” the Japan’s MoD said in its Annual Report 2022.It added that for over 30 years, China has been growing its defence budget at a high level and rapidly improving its military power in qualitative and quantitative terms with focus on nuclear, missile, naval and air forces, which is raising strong concerns.“China is ramping up “Civil-Military Fusion” (CMF is the fusion of milit

Washington, US:  CIA Director William Burns said that China likely saw in Ukraine that “you don’t achieve quick, decisive victories with underwhelming force”, Al Jazeera reported.China repeatedly claims that Taiwan is part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island.Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Burns said that China was “unsettled” when looking at Russia’s five-month-old war in Ukraine, which he characterised as a “strategic failure” for President Vladimir Putin because he had hoped to topple the Kyiv government within a week.“Our sense is that it probably affects less the question of whether the Chinese leadership might choose some years down the road to use force to control Taiwan, but how and when they would do it,” Burns said as quote

Beijing, China: China neglected the atrocities on pro-democracy protestors in Myanmar during China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s bilateral meeting with Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin.China is playing a spoiler in Myanmar’s peace process, reported policy research group, Poreg as Communist China has neither interest nor liking for the democratic idiom. In the run-up to the Seventh Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which the Myanmar junta had hosted at the ancient temple city of Bagan, there were high expectations that Beijing would encourage Yangon to return to the old days by sincerely implementing the peace process outlined by ASEAN.However, China values its own strategic interests and it has gone hawking the Belt and Road Initiative and played a spoi

MANILA: President Marcos is looking at renegotiating the loans with Beijing in the hope of securing the official development assistance loans as the government has no money to fund these projects, said Undersecretary for Railways Cesar Chavez of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). Manila’s loan applications with state-owned China Eximbank for the three big-ticket railways are deemed withdrawn after former Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III “canceled the application instead of keeping it in suspended animation” due to the bank’s inaction, Chavez said. The financing was for contracts—which were already awarded—covering the first package of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) Bicol project, the Subic-Clark Railway Project (SCRP) and the first phase of the Mindanao Ra

Vientiane, Laos:  Laos faces intensifying economic and financial crises and there is likely no way out without some form of a Chinese bailout or debt forgiveness, reported Asia Times.Communists in Vientiane have reason to expect a bailout. Their principal creditor is China, a key ally, and Beijing would surely suffer geopolitically if it allows Laos to default so soon after finishing the USD 5.9 billion railway, a key spur on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) vision for Southeast Asia.“No doubt Laos faces economic and financial difficulties that are tremendous and worryingly severe, but I don’t think China will let Laos default,” says Toshiro Nishizawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy and a member of a fiscal policy team that advised the