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Southeast Asia’s should prepare for a new cold war The Soviets lost the last great power struggle,...
Kusu News 29-Apr-2022
U.S. 'strategic ambiguity' over Taiwan must end
Ukraine has taught the world a lesson: There must be no uncertainty about the need to defend the island
19-Apr-2022 The Japan Times Abe Shinzo
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reminded many people of the fraught relationship between China and Taiwan. But while there are three similarities between the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan, there are also significant differences.
The first similarity is that there is a very large military power gap between Taiwan and China, just as there was between Ukraine and Russia. Moreover, that gap is growing larger every year.
Second, neither Ukraine nor Taiwan has formal military allies. Both countries are forced to confront threats or attacks alone.
Third, because both Russia and China are permanent, veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, the U.N.’s mediation function cannot be relied upon for conflicts in which they are involved. This has been the case with the current Russian attack on Ukraine, and it would also be the case in any crisis over Taiwan.
But the situation surrounding Taiwan is even more uneasy. While Taiwan has no allies, it does have the Taiwan Relations Act, a 1979 U.S. law requiring the United States to provide Taiwan with the military equipment and supplies “necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capacity.” This law has functioned as a form of compensation for America’s unwillingness to say explicitly that it will “defend Taiwan” should it be attacked. This arrangement should now change.
Short-term win for Malaysia's plantation sector from Indonesia's palm oil exports ban
25-Apr-2022 The Business Times
THE Malaysian plantation sector could benefit from Indonesia's move to ban its exports of palm oil, although analysts expect the long-term impact to be insignificant as the ban is unlikely to exceed 4 weeks.
In a video broadcast last Friday (Apr 22), Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced that the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil would ban exports from Apr 28 until further notice. He explained that the policy would help ensure abundant and affordable domestic cooking oil supplies, even as fears mount that the move could further worsen rising global food inflation.
News of the ban quickly shifted the market's attention to Malaysia, the next larger producer of the edible oil. Palm oil, one of the world's widely used edible oils, is also used as biodiesel feedstock.
South-east Asia could draw some investors away from China as virus lockdowns bite
27-Apr-2022 The Business Times
MAJOR South-east Asian economies are set to pull more foreign direct investment (FDI) in the near term, as investors grow wary about China’s locked-down market.
Still, China’s status as the regional giant is likely to stay unchallenged, especially in the longer run.
“FDI flows into Asean have proven extraordinarily resilient over the last couple of years,” Frederic Neumann, co-head of global research for Asia at HSBC, told The Business Times.
“Asean has been a growing magnet for foreign investment flows already in the years prior to the pandemic, highlighting its strengthening competitiveness in many sectors vis-à-vis China.”
Earlier this month, consultancy Kearney’s Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index identified the Asia-Pacific region as the 2nd-most attractive market for investors globally.
Survey respondents were asked to rank markets that are likely to attract the most investment over the next 3 years, and the share who indicated that they were more optimistic about the Asia-Pacific region than a year ago rose to 46 per cent, from 42 per cent previously.
Kusu Island fire: How SCDF firefighters braved heavy rain, darkness to put out blaze at shrine
27-Apr-2022 CNA
SINGAPORE: When Sergeant Jagadeeshvaran Ramanathan arrived at the scene of a fire on Kusu Island, flames were tearing through the shrines or keramats on the top of a hill.
He recalled a blue plastic chair at the entrance of the shrine melting in front of his eyes. There was the creaking sound of the wood and zinc roofing breaking apart as his team laid down water hoses by the glow of the fire and the light of their torches.
t was about 7pm on Apr 17. The light was fading and rain poured down as eight firefighters who were first on the scene rolled out and connected hundreds of metres of hoses to pump seawater from the jetty to the top of the hill to douse the fire.
A full-time national serviceman at Brani Marine Fire Station, SGT1 Ramanathan has served for nearly two years and had responded to incidents at sea, but this was his first time battling a land fire.
Although he was unsure of what to expect, the team had gone on regular drills to rehearse such scenarios in the case of fires on the southern islands.
Locked-down Shanghai residents are getting sick after eating government-issued emergency food supplies
25-Apr-2022 Fortune
Shanghai’s 25 million residents have endured an extreme COVID lockdown for nearly a month—and now a new nightmarish topic is trending on Weibo, the country’s Twitter-like social media platform.
After consuming food from government-issued care packages, a number of residents living in housing compounds across several Shanghai neighborhoods have reported suffering from stomach pains and diarrhea, according to reporting from Bloomberg News.
The care packages, which included meals like braised duck and meatballs, were sent to residents to help combat food shortages. The city’s residents are prohibited from leaving their homes during the lockdown, which began earlier this month, and it has become increasingly difficult to purchase food. Some delivery apps have prohibited individual orders, meaning many residents have had to coordinate with neighbors to join large group orders.
US won’t rule out military action if China establishes base in Solomon Islands
27-Apr-2022 The Guardian
One of the most senior US officials in the Pacific has refused to rule out military action against Solomon Islands if it were to allow China to establish a military base there, saying that the security deal between the countries presented “potential regional security implications” for the US and other allies.
Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, was part of a high-level US delegation to the Pacific country last week.
He said the US team, which also included the National Security Council coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, Kurt Campbell, had a 90-minute “constructive and candid” meeting with prime minister Manasseh Sogavare in which the US team detailed concerns about its recently signed security deal with China.
