Amidst negotiations for an emergency US$4 billion package to assist it to emerge from an economic collapse, Sri Lanka has urged China for support with trade, investment, and tourism to help it expand sustainably, Colombo’s envoy to Beijing said on Monday, July 25th. Having depleted its foreign reserves, the island nation of 22 million people is experiencing its biggest economic …

CHINA: The country’s market regulator announced on Sunday that a number of companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, had been fined for violating anti-monopoly regulations regarding the transparency of transactions (Jul 10). There were 28 trades that were found to have broken the rules by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). Alibaba’s Youku Tudou streaming platform is one of the …

ASEAN – Singapore hosts Shangri-La Dialog, an annual rally of senior defense officers across Asia and beyond.  This dialogue, the largest  gathering of senior military officials in Asia, is not actually hosted by the Government of Singapore. Rather, the event is hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank. However, the Government of Singapore is helping …

Philippines – Many international affairs analysts believe that the new administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. should pursue multilateral relations for better economic interests and national security. They said  Marcos should review the partnership built by  President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, learn from them, and use the lessons learned to form a new foreign policy. “We must involve multilateral institutions …

Indonesia – Long earlier than Australia`s new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made his first bilateral go to Jakarta, Indonesia`s accept as true with in Australia turned into already slipping. According to Lowy Institute`s first ballot  on Indonesia in a decade, Indonesians` accept as true with in Australia had slipped 20 factors in 10 years — from 75% in 2011 to …

Malaysia – Walt Disney Co has been unable to obtain permission to show its new Pixar movie Lightyear in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries, a source said yesterday, and the animated film appeared unlikely to open in China, the world’s largest movie market. A Lightyear producer told Reuters that authorities in China had asked for cuts to the movie, …

ASEAN – Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom stated today that their 51-year-old Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) treaty was robust, current, and critical to managing increasing regional tensions. Following their discussion on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue, the officials told a press conference that the member states’ relationship was friendly, and that they were focused …

ASEAN – This weekend, most inhabitants in China’s economic capital of Shanghai will be subjected to an unexpected round of Covid-19 testing, only 10 days after a city-wide lockdown was lifted, disturbing citizens and raising fears about the effect on business. Shanghai authorities said on Thursday that owing to the identification of a few cases in the neighborhood, seven of …

Philippines – The Philippines had filed a discretionary dissent against China’s yearly fishing ban in certain region of the South China Sea for three and a half months as it stretches out to certain pieces of the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs said it challenged China‘s one-sided fishing boycott in a conciliatory note dated May 30. …

China – Today, Beijing’s streets were bustling as people in two districts were permitted to come back to work, while Shanghai moved closer to removing its two-month-old Covid-19 lockdown, which began on Wednesday, as the number of Covid cases throughout China decreased. While the rest of the world attempts to coexist with the virus, China is the only major country to …