Author: Michelle I Jongenelis, The University of Melbourne In November 2022, Australia’s Minister for Health Mark Butler announced plans to introduce new legislation featuring a raft of tobacco control measures. The ‘Reignite the Fight Against Tobacco Addiction’ reform package includes eleven measures that will see warning labels on individual cigarettes; standardisation of the size of...
Authors: Sun Ryung Park and Charlotte Bull, UBC In January 2023, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol reaffirmed his willingness to reinstate the nuclear power policies that his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, had sought to scrap. But this position raises questions about South Korea’s green energy transition. ‘As a key means to bolster our energy security while...
Authors: Viet Dung Trinh, University of Queensland and Huy Hai Do, Hanoi University The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, is considered an ambitious long-term strategy to promote the expansion of Chinese influence by providing countries in the region with aid and infrastructure investment. But in contrast with...
Author: Monika Chaudhary, IIHMR University In February 2023, India’s government announced that the Geological Survey of India found around 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves in the Salal-Haimana region of Jammu and Kashmir. Lithium is sometimes termed ‘white gold’ for its strategic importance as an essential metal in electrification. But India faces several challenges capitalising...
Author: Ryan Manuel, Bilby Chinese President Xi Jinping had only just launched his third term in power when questions about his leadership began to circulate at home and abroad. China’s complete turnaround on its zero-COVID policy was so rapid and extraordinary that it caught almost everyone by surprise. But China’s course correction was signalled well...
Author: Parul Bakshi, JNU Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed Japan to reevaluate its energy strategy once again. A sharp rise in the price of LNG, a lack of energy alternatives to reduce reliance on Russian LNG imports and Tokyo’s commitment to phasing out Russian coal and oil imports — all while ensuring Japan’s energy...
Author: Maholopa Laveil, Lowy Institute The Papua New Guinea (PNG) government continues to punish the non-competitive sectors within its economy. In 2022, the government introduced a ‘dominant player’ levy and, in 2023, replaced the levy by raising the corporate income tax rate (CIT) on banks from 30 to 45 per cent. An overhang of struggling...
Author: Editorial Board, ANU Confusion, miscommunication, lies, crude posturing, finger-pointing— last month’s ‘balloongate’ was the contemporary US–China relationship in microcosm. As Paul Heer writes in the first of this week’s two lead articles, ‘[w]e now know that this rapid sequence of events reflected a rush to judgement and action before the facts were clear’. The balloon’s...
Author: Paul Heer, Chicago Council on Global Affairs Washington and Beijing’s response to the appearance of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the United States in February 2023 illustrates several aspects of the current US–China relationship that will make it very difficult to reverse the downward spiral in bilateral ties. The episode displayed mutual distrust, latent...
Author: Harrison Prétat, Center for Strategic and International Studies Speaking at the Aspen Institute in December 2022, National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell highlighted the need to ‘build the guardrails’ to keep US–China relations from ‘moving into destabilising areas’. To do so, Washington needs to establish regular dialogue to dispel Beijing’s worst...