https://www.scmp.com/rss/322031/feed Helen Clark is a journalist, editor and researcher based in Australia. She spent six years in Southeast Asia as a foreign correspondent, mostly Vietnam. She writes on Vietnam for the Lowy Institute and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and is the The Diplomat's Oceania correspondent. She also writes for the Huffington Post, Germany's DW, the Asian Sentinel and ANZ's BlueNotes. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Almost two months since France and Australia first clashed over Canberra’s decision to buy American nuclear-powered submarines, the war of words between both has shown no signs of abating, sparking questions about the longer-term implications of the fallout. Last week, French ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault, who recently returned to Canberra after being recalled to Paris following the Aukus alliance announcement, shocked the diplomatic corp when he said the Australian government’s “deceit was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3155531/aukus-fallout-australia-france-have-too-much-stake-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3155531/aukus-fallout-australia-france-have-too-much-stake-indo-pacific?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:00:26 +0000 Some 20 years ago a rookie independent politician from Queensland quickly shot to fame and power, forming her own political party as she insisted that Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”. That was Pauline Hanson, who after a tumultuous career is in parliament again, but she has remained quiet on Australia’s demographic changes this time. New census results this week from Australia show that it is increasingly an Asian nation, with Asian migration outstripping European for the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2100798/should-australia-fear-influx-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2100798/should-australia-fear-influx-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:05:48 +0000 The meeting between Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Donald Trump was highly anticipated by many Asia watchers. How would the new president get along with the Vietnamese leader? Would there be an off-script moment or blowout? For Vietnam, personality politics mattered less than trade and strategy. In Asia, personal ties matter to business and government. You may not have to bribe an official to gain cooperation but you may at least have to drink with him. Yet internationally this... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2096713/nothing-personal-lesson-trump-vietnamese-politics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2096713/nothing-personal-lesson-trump-vietnamese-politics?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jun 2017 09:30:15 +0000 India has rebuffed Australia’s effort to join the trilateral Malabar drills in the Indian Ocean, held with the United States and Japan, two nations Australia shares close ties with. At a time when Indian-Australian cooperation is growing this has been seen as a slight, and a way to placate China, though some experts suggest otherwise. Dr David Brewster, who recently wrote a paper on Australia-India ties and is with the National Security College at the Australian National University in Canberra,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2096699/why-did-india-rebuff-australias-war-games-offer-if-not-placate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2096699/why-did-india-rebuff-australias-war-games-offer-if-not-placate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jun 2017 06:00:45 +0000 Housing affordability, or the lack thereof, is a constant water-cooler topic in Australia. It makes its way into the collective consciousness regularly, through myriad avenues and the culprits earmarked for blame are a many and varied bunch. Baby boomers have blamed expensive smashed avocado brunches for millennials’ inability to save a 10 per cent deposit, while hipsters have blamed greedy baby boomers investing in second and third homes. Yet the latest received wisdom doing the rounds is that... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2095860/are-chinese-really-blame-australias-high-house-prices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2095860/are-chinese-really-blame-australias-high-house-prices?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 May 2017 00:00:45 +0000 Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is making his first trip to the United States since assuming office in April last year. He will arrive in Washington on May 29 and meet with US President Donald Trump on May 31. He will be the first Southeast Asian leader to visit Washington under the new administration. As ever in international politics, it comes at an interesting time. Just over a year ago, in a very different climate, President Barack Obama visited Vietnam. The populace went mad for... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2095886/after-talking-china-about-china-vietnam-goes-washington-do-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2095886/after-talking-china-about-china-vietnam-goes-washington-do-it?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 May 2017 14:17:40 +0000 Australia sends a lot of things to China: iron ore, lithium, wine, meat. And now, China is also the country’s biggest market for books, with more contracts for Australian-penned stories signed with publishers in China than in either the United States or Britain. Australian Writers’ Week in China has just finished up. This was its tenth year and some of Australia’s heaviest-hitting authors were there to celebrate: Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s Ark (which was made into the film... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2095014/australian-authors-proving-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2095014/australian-authors-proving-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 May 2017 04:02:34 +0000 In a budget unveiled last week, the Australian government of Malcolm Turnbull put “Australians first” by cutting the 457 visa for foreign workers and bringing in tougher English testing for immigrants. Turnbull had said in April: “We will no longer allow 457 visas to be passports to jobs that could and should go to Australians. We’re putting jobs first, and we’re putting Australians first.” But what will this mean for a country with growing roots and trade in Asia? Dan Engles, managing director... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2094990/australia-first-what-new-visa-policy-means-chinese-asian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2094990/australia-first-what-new-visa-policy-means-chinese-asian?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 May 2017 08:00:15 +0000 China is not the only nation taking aim at corruption: neighbouring Vietnam has been on its own clean up duty – firing a member of the 19-person governing Politburo in a public and unexpected move. Dinh La Thang, a former chairman of state-owned enterprise (SOE) PetroVietnam, and currently transport minister and party chief in Ho Chi Minh City, has been sacked from his position for violations and mismanagement during his time at the company. It is a rare public sacking for a top official – the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2093997/whats-really-behind-vietnams-sacking-top-communist-party-official?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2093997/whats-really-behind-vietnams-sacking-top-communist-party-official?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 May 2017 05:02:40 +0000 The disruption of an international conference on conflict diamonds by a mainland Chinese delegation upset at the presence of Taiwanese guests may add grist to the mill for Beijing’s sceptics in Australia. At the opening of the Kimberley Process meeting in Perth this week, Chinese delegates shocked many participants by demanding the microphone to call a point of order on the presence of the Taiwanese group – which included government officials alongside members of a Taipei diamond trading house,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2093119/make-them-leave-chinese-delegation-forces-australia-remove-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2093119/make-them-leave-chinese-delegation-forces-australia-remove-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 May 2017 12:44:58 +0000 Fresh studies predicting adverse economic impacts of a proposed Australian coal mine have strengthened opposition to the A$21.7 billion (HK$126 billion) project by an Indian conglomerate that has become a political hot potato for the Malcolm Turnbull government. Westpac, the country’s second-largest bank, queered the pitch further when on Friday it announced it would not fund new coal mining regions. With that, Westpac joins three other main banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and National Australia... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2091240/report-digs-deeper-hole-australias-indian-coal-mine-plan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2091240/report-digs-deeper-hole-australias-indian-coal-mine-plan?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Apr 2017 04:30:15 +0000 Chinese drinkers are showing an increasing thirst for Australian wines, making them the toast of exporters whose businesses are benefitting from the discerning palates of the country’s growing middle class and a multitude of buying options. Australian wine exports to China grew 51 per cent in the 12 months up to September last year, making Australia the top exporter to China by value and second by volume, after France. China in turn is Australia’s top market, surpassing the United States last... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2068800/how-australian-wines-breached-grape-wall-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2068800/how-australian-wines-breached-grape-wall-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Feb 2017 12:31:41 +0000 SIGNALLING CLOSER TIES between the two nations, India and Vietnam are discussing the sale of the Akash missile system to the Southeast Asian nation. And China is officially not happy about it. The fast-evolving relationship between Vietnam and India drew Beijing’s ire this week via the government mouthpiece Global Times, which described the Indian arms sale as “stirring up trouble”, and said China would “hardly sit with its arms crossed”. In the past, China has barely sniffed at the notion that... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2061550/why-india-risking-chinese-anger-trying-sell-missiles-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2061550/why-india-risking-chinese-anger-trying-sell-missiles-vietnam?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Jan 2017 09:45:15 +0000 The prickly relationship between Australia and Indonesia, based on different interpretations of history, has once again found its way into the public spotlight. What sets this latest fracas apart most is its setting – military circles. Reportedly, teaching materials used to train Indonesian soldiers at Campbell Barracks in Perth, Western Australia, offered sympathy for West Papuan independence, covered the topic of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor, and mocked the nation’s founding principles... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2059998/what-military-spat-reveals-about-australias-ties-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2059998/what-military-spat-reveals-about-australias-ties-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jan 2017 12:30:30 +0000 Donald’s Trump’s unexpected swerve on the one-China policy has reignited the post-election debate over Australia’s US-centred foreign policy, torn as it is between its top trading partner China and its main ally and security guarantor America. Ever since Trump was elected president, Australia has, for the first time in more than a decade, been witnessing a split from the bipartisan view of both major parties that the US is central to Australian interests. Senator Penny Wong, who is the shadow... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2055303/how-asia-can-benefit-trump-presidency-puts-distance-between?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2055303/how-asia-can-benefit-trump-presidency-puts-distance-between?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Dec 2016 09:33:38 +0000 Vietnam’s decision to abandon its nascent nuclear power programme and turn back to cheaper, dirtier, coal says much about where the nation thought it was headed – and about where it has ended up. The move last month was a blow for the climate conscious and highlights how the nation no longer has the economy to justify the fuel consumption predictions it once did. And it marks how seriously the government now takes public anger over pollution. Vietnam decides to put nuclear power plant... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2053399/why-climate-conscious-vietnam-choosing-coal-over-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2053399/why-climate-conscious-vietnam-choosing-coal-over-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Dec 2016 00:04:27 +0000 Why would a lesbian Australian senator oppose a public vote on gay marriage? Labor’s Penny Wong did so this week, reasoning that it would lead to forceful, vitriolic ‘no’ campaigns and the kind of homophobia she has fought all her life. She is not alone on this issue. The plebiscite was blocked on Monday night in Canberra’s Senate or Upper House in a vote of 33 to 29, with Labor, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team party and Independent Derryn Hinch all joining Wong in voting against. Love Wins:... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2045201/why-australian-lesbian-senator-malaysian-chinese-descent-opposed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2045201/why-australian-lesbian-senator-malaysian-chinese-descent-opposed?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Nov 2016 02:04:22 +0000 Australian broadcast media gave roughly twice as much coverage to the US election as it did to the country’s own election earlier this year, according to media monitoring company Isentia. But while Australians’ interest in the vote is clear, their thoughts on a President Trump are less so, with answers depending not only on who you ask, but when you asked them. Earlier this year a poll by think tank the Lowy Institute, based in Sydney, found support for Hillary Clinton at close to 80 per cent,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044437/australians-view-president-trump-depends-when-you-ask?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2044437/australians-view-president-trump-depends-when-you-ask?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Nov 2016 09:57:28 +0000 The connection between smashed avocado on toast and housing affordability in Australia. Is that a Freakonomics riddle, a spurious correlation or a topic that warrants a serious multi-day discussion for Australia’s media, old and new? The last. As in Hong Kong, housing affordability for the young is a constant topic of debate and anger. Many would-be first-home buyers are either priced out of the market or facing years of saving for a deposit yet, again like in HK, home ownership is considered... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2043138/what-avocados-have-do-housing-crises-australia-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2043138/what-avocados-have-do-housing-crises-australia-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Nov 2016 02:00:00 +0000 When Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said her country would share the US$1.52 billion costs of stationing American troops in Darwin, the justification she gave in many ways summed up Australian policy. Cost of US military deployment in Australia’s tropical north to be shared between Washington and Canberra Speaking in Washington on Thursday, Payne said the deal over the troops – deployed since November 2011 under an agreement between Australia’s then Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2026147/caught-between-china-and-us-what-australia-has-fear-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2026147/caught-between-china-and-us-what-australia-has-fear-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Oct 2016 03:00:15 +0000 The world has entered an era in which people are being displaced at an unprecedented rate. In 2014, conflict and persecution forced 42,500 people a day to flee their homes, nearly quadruple the number from 2010. Almost 60 million people are now forcibly displaced – a crisis unmatched since the second world war. READ MORE: Wealthy nations have an obligation to take in refugees whose lives have been torn apart This is unacceptable, but it is not inevitable. In 1945, the world responded to the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1900079/unlock-human-potential-refugees-and-let-them-contribute?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1900079/unlock-human-potential-refugees-and-let-them-contribute?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jan 2016 06:09:11 +0000 A conference on managing extractive industries in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, addressed the challenge of how resource-rich countries can make best use of their precious oil, gas or mineral assets and develop resilience to price volatility. Countries exporting these commodities need options to stabilise their economies and make them less vulnerable to the vagaries of unpredictable prices. Recent market history shows why: copper prices dropped nearly 15 per cent from July to September, and the price of... https://www.scmp.com/article/983077/building-wealth-long-after-miners-depart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983077/building-wealth-long-after-miners-depart?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000