TTCT – Sau thời gian dài giằng co, chính trường Thái Lan cuối cùng cũng (tạm thời) ngã ngũ với một tân thủ tướng và sự trở về của một cựu thủ tướng bị lật đổ.
Japan And China: Competition Or Cooperation In Southeast Asia? | Japan’s Indo-Pacific Plan – Part 1
Japan is investing in a series of infrastructure and supply chain resilience projects in ASEAN. It’s all part of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific plan launched by the Japanese government. Is this an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative? What is the current state of relations between Japan & China? Will the two Asian giants cooperate or compete?
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How Will Japan’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Impact Southeast Asia? | Japan’s Indo-Pacific Plan – Part 2
Japan is investing in infrastructure to alleviate the economic bottlenecks in ASEAN countries. In Indonesia, it’s building the country’s first MRT project. In Vietnam, it has invested in a network of roads, rail, ports and energy infrastructure. And in the Philippines, it’s investing in a flood mitigation project. What do these projects have in common? And why has Japan chosen to invest in them?
Rising Sino-American rivalry and fears of an accidental superpower clash are forcing states to step up their diplomatic games.
That’s particularly true for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is now scrambling to forge greater internal unity and nudge the US and China toward greater dialogue to avoid a conflict in its neighborhood.
Kênh đào Bình Lục đổ vào Vịnh Bắc Bộ với kinh phí 10,3 tỉ USD mà Trung Quốc đang xây dựng có thể giúp nước này xích lại gần hơn với khu vực Đông Nam Á.
TTCT – Đam mê thành tích thật ra không phải chuyện xấu.
Từ phương Đông tới phương Tây, có bậc phụ huynh nào không muốn con đi học có thành tích tốt, được vinh danh trên bảng vàng, được nguyên thủ quốc gia viết thư khen… Còn trong thể thao, đi thi đấu thì ai chẳng thích nhận huy chương.
Vấn đề nằm ở chỗ thành tích đạt được có đúng với thực lực hay không? Vì vậy, có phê phán bệnh đam mê thành tích cần thêm cụm từ “bằng mọi giá”.
With almost 90 percent of Myanmar’s population being devoted Buddhists, the religion has been at the heart of the nation’s very identity for centuries.
But while the pillars of Buddhist teachings are love, compassion and peace, there is a very different variation to the philosophy being taught at the Ma Ba Tha monastery in Yangon’s Insein township.
The monks there are connected to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the systematic persecution and genocide of the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
Al Jazeera’s unprecedented access to the Ma Ba Tha monastery and its leaders offers a glimpse into how their ultra-nationalist agenda is becoming the blueprint for the political structure of the country. Is the joining of forces between monks and generals threatening Myanmar’s young and fragile democracy?
An Unholy Alliance: Monks and the Military in Myanmar | Featured Documentary
Singapore is known for having some of the toughest drug laws in the world.
The government insists that the death penalty helps keep the country safe. But a spate of executions has caused alarm and triggered unprecedented protests in the city-state.
Authorities say the majority of Singapore’s residents support its zero-tolerance policy. But critics maintain that vulnerable people are being killed, leaving families devastated.
Should Singapore heed calls to rethink its drug laws? 101 East investigates.
Proponents describe regional power grids as a way to promote economic growth, energy security and renewables in Southeast Asia, but this might come at a heavy cost
Lat Tha Hae temple in Luang Prabang province, Laos, half submerged by the Nam Ou 1 hydropower dam (Image: Ton Ka/China Dialogue)
On 23 June 2022, the import of 100 megawatts (MW) of hydropower from Laos to Singapore through Thailand and Malaysia was hailed as a historic milestone. Part of a pilot project known as the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP), this event represented Singapore’s first ever import of renewable energy, and also the first instance of cross-border electricity trade involving four countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
However, this development takes place amid rising concerns for the ecological future of the transboundary Mekong River and the millions of people who depend on it. A 2018 study by the Mekong River Commission concluded that further hydropower development on the river would negatively affect ecosystems, and would reduce soil fertility, rice production, fish yields and food security, while increasing poverty in the river basin.
A dam being built in Laos near the border with Cambodia imperils downstream communities and the Mekong ecosystem as a whole, experts and affected community members say.
The Sekong A dam will close off the Sekong River by the end of this year, restricting its water flow, blocking vital sediment from reaching the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and cutting off migration routes for a range of fish species.
Experts say the energy to be generated by the dam — 86 megawatts — doesn’t justify the negative impacts, calling it “an absolutely unnecessary project.”
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.
Controversial changes fuelled protests when they were first proposed in 2019 and could still be challenged in court.
Published On 6 Dec 20226 Dec 2022
Indonesia has passed a controversial new Criminal Code that includes outlawing sex outside marriage and cohabitation, in changes that critics contend could undermine freedoms in the Southeast Asian nation.
The new laws apply to Indonesians and foreigners and also restore a ban on insulting the president, state institutions or Indonesia’s national ideology known as Pancasila.
Aljazeera – Vladimir Putin’s absence from the G20 Summit in Bali also undermines talk of a Russian pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 15 Nov 202215 Nov 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin has oozed a casual resentment when describing the “irreversible and even tectonic changes” that he says have led the West to become a spent force in the world.
“Western countries are striving to maintain a former world order that is beneficial only to them,” he told attendees at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok in September.
Aljazeera – Soviet-era nostalgia and anti-Western sentiment fuel online support for Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine.
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 18 Nov 202218 Nov 2022
While the West has united in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opinions differ markedly in parts of the developing world where Russia is not reviled but revered for what some see as its stance against the West and its hypocrisies.
In Southeast Asia, a region dominated for decades by “strongman” political leaders and where nostalgia for the Soviet Union persists in some quarters, Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strong following among social media users who are sympathetic to his invasion of Ukraine and find his macho self-image appealing.
PHNOM PENH, 13 November 2022 – The Leaders of ASEAN and China welcomed the official launch of negotiations for the upgrade of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA). The upgrade negotiations are meant to ensure that ACFTA contributes to the further deepening and broadening of ASEAN-China economic relations and to both region’s post-pandemic economic recovery. The announcement on the upgrade of the ACFTA was made at the 25th ASEAN-China Summit.
The ACFTA is ASEAN’s oldest FTA among its Dialogue Partners. Upgrading the ACFTA sends a signal to the private sector and all stakeholders that both ASEAN and China are committed to make the ACFTA more relevant to businesses, future-ready, and responsive to global challenges.