Tai Wei Lim is Adjunct Research Fellow at East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore and Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences.
In the revived contemporary interest in the Maritime Silk Road, narratives about Zheng He may become part of the current discourse on Chinese plans to revive the maritime trading route which spans cities from China to Italy.
Both Malaysia and the Philippines along with others in the original ASEAN-5 are already comfortable in terms of their partnerships with Japan, and they will find working with China to be a productive and possibly value-added new infrastructure construction partnership experience.
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej was the world’s longest-reigning monarch before his demise on October 13, 2016. Thailand established official ties with China in 1975 and was one of the earliest countries in Southeast Asia to do so. King Bhumibol maintained the bond by meeting most of the top Chinese leaders.
Submarine acquisitions in East Asia reflect ongoing geopolitical movements and trends. The ultimate fear is that submarines may become the capital ships in sea-lane denial missions. Submarine acquisitions are as much for bilateral diplomacy as they are military hardware acquisitions.
2016 has proven to be a busy year thus far for diplomats of the major world powers as they flew into South Asia’s capitals to cut deals and cooperate in combating terrorism as well as extending areas of cooperation with geopolitical implications.
The phenomenon of Pokémon Go was built on the foundations of the real-world physical Pokémon products of the 1990s and early 2000s which was a runaway hit with kids and its influence shaped an entire generation of American children through primetime TV.
Zhang Dejiang, a ranking politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party, visited Hong Kong in May 2016. The highlight of his trip turned out to be gatherings with selected pro-democracy politicians from the island who espouse a more moderate position.
Japan has common interests with China in stopping nuclear proliferation in Northeast Asia. The H-bomb test may then end up as a common rallying point that can bring Japan, China, and South Korea together facing a common threat.