Reports of Cameron Frecklington
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Asean split by spectre of Chinese guns and money
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) operates under the motto ‘One Vision, One Identity, One Community.’ Recently, however, the bloc has not been so unified. A schism between its 10 member states is growing over China, their giant neighbour to the north. It is a divide that threatens to ...
China’s ‘new normal’ showing first signs of strain
For the past 30 years in China economic growth has been king, an unofficial religion in a country where the governing Communist Party disdains any faith other than itself. After decades of double-digit growth, expansion has now slowed to seven per cent per year, according to the government, or considerably ...
China slowdown raises questions over military and social spending
China is stepping up its monetary and fiscal measures to stimulate the economy. But how great are the risks? A January 2015 Deutsche Bank report states that ‘China will likely face the worst fiscal challenge since 1981’ as fast-falling land sales - long the lifeblood of fiscal revenue - result ...
Foreign firms' concern over China's antitrust investigations
Foreign companies, lured by the prospect of sharing in China’s growth and sales to a population of 1.4 billion, are increasingly concerned about being caught up in the country’s anti-corruption campaign and rising economic nationalism. Several court cases have underlined the dangers for multinationals as they do business in a ...
China’s economic and political controls are pulling in opposite directions
President Xi Jinping is tightening his grip on China. Some in the West have presumed that a second Cultural Revolution is under way. But the correct analysis would be that Mr Xi is simply increasing the socialist rhetoric and centralising power so as to concentrate decision-making authority. He is taking ...
Russia comes between Kim Jong-un and Chinese patron
North Korea is one of the least familiar and most notorious countries in the world, existing for decades behind its ideological principle of juche – ‘self-sufficiency’. Yet geopolitical patterns are shifting, threatening a change in East Asia’s strategic balance. GIS guest expert Cameron Frecklington looks behind the creaking facade of ...
Xi Jinping seeks a place in history as China’s great reformer
Reform, often preceded by the purposefully vague phrase ‘comprehensively deepening’, is one of the most picked apart words in China. Discussions on reform, whether political, economic or social, have intensified since November 15, 2012, the day Xi Jinping, son of Communist Party stalwart Xi Zhongxun (making him a princeling, or ...
Internal divisions pose problems for new BRICS bank
The BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have set up a New Development Bank as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These emerging economies have little in common and some observers warn that China could grow too big for the others ...
