Today Trends

Author: Darson Chiu, TIER In 2022, Taiwan unveiled its ‘Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050’ plan, which outlines four major transformations in energy, industry, lifestyle and society. It also includes two essential governance foundations in technology research and development (R&D) and climate legislation, supported by 12 key strategies. These strategies encompass renewable sources (wind and solar, hydrogen, innovative energy), energy systems (storage, savings and efficiency), de-carbonisation (capture, sinks and carbon-free vehicles), zero waste, green lifestyle, green finance and just transition. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, Taiwan aims to increase the share of renewables and natural gas in its energy mix to 20 per cent and 50 per cent respectively, while reducing the share of coal to 30 per cent by 2025. Implementing this pathway can contribute to sustainable growth in several ways. First, it can serve as a model for other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (A

Author: Junyi Cai, University of Sydney As a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organisation, the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) wields influence in shaping the discourse and progress of women’s rights in various aspects at the state level. But because the ACWF must walk a fine line between adhering to CCP discourse and advocating for women’s issues, the extent to which it functions as a feminist organisation is limited. The ACWF holds the dual responsibility of representing the interests of women and assisting with the implementation of the party-state’s policies relating to women. It has played a significant role in initiating and implementing major legislation, including the Marriage Law, the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests and the Anti-Domestic Violence Law. Women’s Federations (WF) in China should be understood as a nation-wide network ‘system’ ( fulian ), rather than a single organisation. Closely resembling the hierarchical distribution of state power

Author: Jerome Doyon, CERI Sciences Po The increased penetration of the private sector by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is causing widespread concern . The establishment of party branches within private companies is perceived as a potential lever of control, alongside financial and regulatory tools, that the government could wield to keep businesses in line.  But while the increasing centrality of the CCP in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is evident, its role in private companies remains less obvious. Party units in private companies are not a new phenomenon. Since the 1980s, the CCP has stressed its willingness to affirm its presence in the growing private economy, especially in foreign joint ventures. In 1992, the CCP charter included ‘companies’ in its list of structures where a party organisation should be set up if they host three or more party members. The 1993 Company Law required all companies based in China to allow the establishment of units to ‘carry out the activ

Author: Faizal Bin Yahya, NUS In 2021, Southeast Asian unicorns — privately owned billion-dollar businesses — came into the spotlight because of an increased inflow of private equity funding for tech start-ups. The region’s growing smartphone usage among its young demographic, expanding middle class and growth in internet users led to investment in the sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation and tech companies increased their headcount rapidly on the back of low-interest lending and flush liquidity. Rapid consumer adoption of e-commerce, increased use of food delivery platforms and the push for innovative tech solutions, especially in the finance and banking sectors, attracted greater funding. This fuelled investment in start-ups and the expansion of the tech workforce. The emergence of unicorns in Southeast Asia attracted a greater inflow of cheap liquidity to the region. The unicorn business model uses investment funds to scale up rapidly by offering custom

Author: Willem Thorbecke, RIETI COVID-19 is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Japan — like other countries — declared a state of emergency. They asked non-essential businesses to close and employees to work from home. Individuals also avoided restaurants, public transportation and tourist attractions. The shock initially decimated the Japanese economy. Exports fell by 12 per cent in 2020 and real GDP fell by 4.3 per cent. Three years after the pandemic’s arrival, some sectors of the economy have bounced back, while others have not. A bright spot is the surge in repatriated earnings from overseas output. Much of these overseas activities take place within production networks and transactions within these networks are more resilient. They recover more quickly from disasters, financial crises and pandemics than transactions outside of these networks. One way to shed light on how sectors have fared since the pandemic began is to investigate the performance of sectoral stock prices. Fina

Author: Chenchao Lian, Oxford University In recent years, there has been a prevalent discourse which suggests that nationalism has emerged as a key driving force behind China’s foreign policy, particularly in international incidents and crises. But China’s actions on the global stage exhibit a range of responses to nationalism in different incidents — at times embracing it and at other times adopting a more detached approach. Policymakers, academics and the general public lack a clear understanding of the role Chinese nationalism truly plays. Why and under what condition would the Chinese government choose to escalate as nationalists require in some state-to-state international incidents, but not in others? When the Chinese government responds to international incidents, its primary concern lies in garnering public support while safeguarding national interests. Policy formulation is significantly influenced by legitimacy concerns, of which economic development and nationalism hold

Author: Craig Emerson, Emerson Economics Australia has an opportunity to develop and share a simplified trade system that could be the new-generation equivalent of tariff reductions in the pursuit of free and open trade. Since the mid-1980s, Australian governments have undertaken the arduous process of transforming the Australian economy from inward-looking and protected by high tariffs and quotas to an open, competitive economy. In 2023, Australia’s highest tariff rate is just 5 per cent. There are no tariffs on most goods and on all imports from countries with which Australia has preferential trade agreements. The lowering of trade barriers — complemented by a suite of other pro-competition reforms — led to record-breaking productivity growth and sharply rising living standards during the 1990s and early 2000s. But productivity growth has since faltered, with 2010–20 being the worst decade in 60 years . What’s next for Australia as it seeks to lift productivity growth off the f

Author: Lisa Cameron, University of Melbourne A 2020 study found that 87 per cent of young, married men in Saudi Arabia supported the statement that ‘women should be allowed to work outside the home’. Yet most underestimated the number of their peers who also agreed with this statement. When some of the men were informed of the level of support among their peers in a randomised trial, those in the treatment group were more likely to forgo a gift card and instead sign their wives up for a job-matching mobile application. Months later, their wives were more likely to have applied and been interviewed for a job. In 2022, a similar experiment was conducted in Indonesia. The initial results suggest a similar effect. While providing practical information for implementing interventions, these studies also highlight the underlying dynamics that keep women from the workforce, with social norms emerging as the elephant in the room. Besides being a worthy goal in its own right, gender equ

Author: Rezka Dwi Fathana, UCL Indonesia and the world stand on the cusp of an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution set to reshape public healthcare. While AI offers vast opportunities — from diagnosing disease to improving accessibility — integrating it with existing services and tackling its ethical issues are significant challenges that demand careful consideration. In early 2023, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence language model, ChatGPT, stunned the medical community by performing remarkably well on all three parts of the United States Medical Licensing Exam without any specialised training. Google’s Med-PaLM 2 also achieved ‘expert-level ’ performance on similar tasks, reflecting AI’s capacity to assimilate and utilise extensive medical knowledge. In a simulated setting, ChatGPT even surpassed human physicians in delivering empathetic responses to patient queries on a social media forum. The transformative power of AI extends beyond the clinical setting. Researchers from