https://www.scmp.com/rss/500914/feed Hoang Thi Ha is Senior Fellow and Co-coordinator of the Regional Strategic and Political Studies Programme at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com When US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs – including a staggering 46 per cent levy on Vietnam – on April 2, Hanoi immediately expressed deep disappointment, calling the move inconsistent with their newly elevated comprehensive strategic partnership. But Trump has never been one for diplomatic niceties. In his world view, most countries are neither friends nor foes but “rippers” and “robbers” of American wealth. He scorns the old playbook, operating without a coherent... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3306222/tariff-man-cometh-vietnams-misplaced-faith-trump-20?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3306222/tariff-man-cometh-vietnams-misplaced-faith-trump-20?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Apr 2025 03:00:16 +0000 The “Global South” has become a buzzword in international affairs, as developing nations demand a more equitable global order. But how well does this framing actually capture the complex realities of regions like Southeast Asia? The resurgence of Global South discourse has been fuelled by intensifying great power competition, as China, India and others vie for influence by positioning themselves as its champion. China has become adept at co-opting “Global South” language to critique the West and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3272032/southeast-asia-and-global-south-rhetoric-vs-reality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3272032/southeast-asia-and-global-south-rhetoric-vs-reality?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Jul 2024 03:00:16 +0000 In October, Vietnam’s President Vo Van Thuong attended the third Belt and Road Initiative Forum (BRF), which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative – a hallmark strategy that signifies China’s ascent as a global economic powerhouse. During his meetings with Chinese leaders, Thuong underscored the importance of harnessing Beijing’s infrastructure programme to enhance connectivity and trade linkages between Vietnam and China. Yet despite Vietnam’s official support for... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3245228/vietnam-rethinks-scepticism-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-laos-cambodia-reap-benefits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3245228/vietnam-rethinks-scepticism-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-laos-cambodia-reap-benefits?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Dec 2023 02:00:26 +0000 On February 24 last year, when Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv to begin the invasion of Ukraine, most Asean member states, barring Singapore, expressed serious concerns but did not condemn Russia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) adopted a centrist approach in its February 26 statement, calling on “all relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint” that effectively blurred the line between aggressor and victim. However, as the war drags on, it becomes increasingly untenable... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3211294/ukraine-war-no-longer-remote-southeast-asia-impact-year-long-conflict-takes-toll?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3211294/ukraine-war-no-longer-remote-southeast-asia-impact-year-long-conflict-takes-toll?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Feb 2023 02:00:17 +0000 Can a giant stingray in the Lower Mekong be used to craft a good narrative about Chinese upstream dams? It can, according to a Khmer Times article about a 300kg stingray found in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province. The June 27 article quoted Zeb Hogan, an American biologist, as saying that “stingrays do not like to live in polluted waters”, and this “shows that China’s dam construction doesn’t affect the Lower Mekong’s ecosystem”. Hogan is also director of the Wonders of the Mekong project funded... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3195141/can-mekong-river-stingrays-tell-chinas-dam-narrative-well?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3195141/can-mekong-river-stingrays-tell-chinas-dam-narrative-well?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Oct 2022 01:00:15 +0000 The “Asian way” has been a persistent theme in China’s messaging towards its Southeast Asian neighbours in the last decade. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently restated it at the Asean Secretariat on July 11 as he called for “settling differences in the Asian way” to “blaze a new path of security that chooses dialogue over confrontation, partnerships over alliances, and win-win over zero-sum game”. What does the “Asian way” mean? Does it exist as an objective reality, or is it a Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3187791/asian-way-just-chinas-bid-rival-us-moves-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3187791/asian-way-just-chinas-bid-rival-us-moves-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2022 01:00:26 +0000 Joint statements by foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) on important regional and international issues are measures of the bloc’s unity and credibility. They also demonstrate how cohesive Asean is internally and how far it could go in projecting itself as an actor with a voice to be heard internationally. But as the conflict rages in Ukraine after Russia invaded the former Soviet state last week, Asean has earned more bad marks than credits for its February 26 joint... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3168789/ukraine-invasion-asean-should-have-called-out-russias-attack-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3168789/ukraine-invasion-asean-should-have-called-out-russias-attack-it?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Mar 2022 08:00:13 +0000 While China has so far supplied 190 million doses of its home-grown Covid-19 inoculations to Southeast Asia, making it a primary region for Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy, public perception towards the likes of Sinovac and Sinopharm are largely negative. An examination of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam reveals some common factors driving this selective hesitancy, despite the two Chinese-made vaccines being by far the most readily available in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3148216/whats-behind-southeast-asias-hesitancy-towards-china-made?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3148216/whats-behind-southeast-asias-hesitancy-towards-china-made?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Sep 2021 03:00:13 +0000 The Mekong river, which runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is the beating heart of mainland Southeast Asia, sustaining the livelihoods of around 66 million people. Yet the river is running dry, with its water levels at their lowest in 100 years. Its ecosystem nears the verge of collapse from the accumulative effects of climate change, dam-building and other man-made activities such as deforestation, sand mining, extensive irrigation and wetland... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3133963/why-asean-needs-care-about-mekong-issues-it-did-haze?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3133963/why-asean-needs-care-about-mekong-issues-it-did-haze?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 May 2021 01:45:13 +0000 Why did the Philippines launch a bold and unprecedented legal challenge against China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea in 2013? According to a leading member of the Philippines’ legal team who spoke with the authors while the case was under way, above all Manila sought a definitive legal judgment on the rights of coastal states within their exclusive economic zones and the legality of China’s nine-dash line as well as its so-called historic rights within that line. When the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3093158/missed-chance-south-china-sea-has-come-back-haunt-asean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3093158/missed-chance-south-china-sea-has-come-back-haunt-asean?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jul 2020 02:00:20 +0000 Asian seas are far from tranquil as Beijing asserts control and builds its military presence in the South China Sea. The strategic waterway is now one of the world’s most volatile geopolitical fault lines, and smaller countries in the region are faced with the thorny problem of how to respond. For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), its management of the issue will test whether the group believes in “Asian values” and cultural exceptionalism or places greater emphasis on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3011747/south-china-sea-asean-has-choice-asian-values-or-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3011747/south-china-sea-asean-has-choice-asian-values-or-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 May 2019 02:45:13 +0000