Today Trends

Author: Jaganath Sankaran, University of Texas China and North Korea have accumulated a significant arsenal of ballistic missiles. China is estimated to possess as many as 1500 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) and 450 medium-range ballistic missiles. These missiles could target the United States and allied military bases in a Taiwan Strait confrontation. North Korea has close to 1000 SRBMs and approximately 300 medium-range ballistic missiles that can reach targets in South Korea and Japan. In 2017, former director of US National Intelligence Daniel Coats testified to the US Congress that North Korea has developed precision conventional ballistic missile capabilities. The US Department of Defense 2019 Missile Defense Review also declares China’s regional ballistic missiles as a prominent weapons system in its ‘efforts to counter US military capabilities in the Indo-Pacific’ and ‘deny the United States the capability and freedom of action to protect US allies and partners i

Author: Roselyn Hsueh, Temple University The Chinese government created the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR) market in 2019 to allow domestic science and technology companies that align with national sector-specific strategies to bypass government approval, raise money and list internationally. The STAR registry promised more relaxed requirements on profitability and pricing based on registration and disclosure in line with global stock markets. The dual listing of Alibaba’s Ant Group on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchanges was scheduled to take place via STAR on 5 November 2020. But the Chinese government abruptly halted Ant Group’s US$37 billion stock debut two days before the scheduled initial public offering (IPO) due to regulatory scrutiny of the online wealth management and banking platform . Now the development of China’s capital markets appears to be at stake. After the suspension of Ant Group’s dual IPO, many high-tech start-

Author: Gillian Moon, UNSW Concerns have long been held about certain adverse human and environmental rights impacts of the international investment arbitration system, or investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), under which foreign investors seek compensation for state violations of international investment agreements. Human rights experts are particularly concerned about the asymmetric nature of the system and a lack of investors’ human rights obligations. Together with high ISDS costs and arbitral awards, they undermine states’ ability to realise economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. Criticism has not gone unheard and a broad reform process is underway through both the arbitration tribunal systems and ‘new generation’ investment agreements. The Asia Pacific region has been a hub of this activity in recent years. Multiple regional and plurilateral agreements have come into being such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (C

Author: June Park, George Washington University The United States is home to ‘state-of-the-art’ integrated device manufacturers and fabless chip firms, but the global chip shortage during COVID-19 has revealed weaknesses in US chip manufacturing capacities at foundries. The Biden administration’s assessment of global semiconductor supply chains acknowledges that while the United States leads in system-on-chip designs, it severely lacks foundries to boost chip production in scale to mitigate the risk of future chip shortages. The United States aims to synthesise the entire chip production process by overcoming constraints in subsidies and infrastructure. It is also mobilising funding via the Chips for America Act and by pressuring allies with chip manufacturing capacity to contribute. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has committed to aiding the United States in resolving the chip shortage after considerable pressure from the White House to invest in the United Sta

Authors: Christoph Nedopil Wang and Jingying Han, Central University of Finance and Economics The deployment of global green finance needs to be rapidly accelerated to close the massive infrastructure investment gap and to allow a transition to green forms of energy, transport, industry, urbanisation and agriculture. Yet so far, green finance lacks harmonised definitions on types of projects, disclosure requirements, impact thresholds and applicable instruments.     As two of the major markets for green finance, China and the European Union are working on adopting a common green taxonomy . The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has confirmed it will discuss a globally recognised green taxonomy with G20 member countries at the upcoming G20 summit in Rome. This development could have important benefits for the Asia Pacific region to close the massive gap in sustainable infrastructure finance. Green finance is considered a key element to tackle the dual challenges of climate change and

Author: Juan Du, University of Sydney The responses of Chinese regulators to initial public offerings (IPOs) by the country’s homegrown tech companies have made headlines beyond financial markets. With memories of the paused IPO and anti-trust investigations into Jack Ma’s Ant Group still fresh, regulators launched a series of investigations into Didi Global, China’s biggest ride-hailing company, within days of its IPO in New York on 30 June 2021. Some media reports about the regulatory actions are skewed towards speculation about the Chinese Communist Party’s tightened grip over the tech giants. But based on public information, the accumulation of user data is a common theme in the investigations into Ant Group and Didi Global. Like oil giants last century, big tech companies are facing growing challenges from states over their monopoly on user data. Super platforms act as basic infrastructure for the digital economy, enabling everything from the production to the distribution

Author: Gemmo Fernandez, ANU On 14 June 2021, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda announced the completion of her preliminary examination into the Philippine government’s deadly campaign against illegal narcotics . She concluded that there is reasonable basis to believe that a crime against humanity was committed in the Philippines, with state actors engaging in widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population pursuant to a state policy. Further, she found that there was a marked failure on the part of the Philippine government to take meaningful steps to investigate or prosecute these killings. Accordingly, Bensouda sought authorisation from the ICC to proceed with an investigation which, should it be granted, would allow her to gather further information for the purposes of indicting persons before the court. The Philippine government responded with anger. President Rodrigo Duterte described the ICC as ‘bullshit’, asked why

Author: Luther Lie, Indonesian Center for Law, Economics, and Business Prompted by surges of COVID-19 infections driven by new variants, governments are once again tightening restrictions, bringing renewed disruption to global commercial activity. The consequences are disastrous for businesses, including Southeast Asian state-owned enterprise (SOE) airlines which have been forced to take on billions more in debt. These companies should look to the lessons of Japan National Railway (JNR) in the 1980s in strategising a way out. On 15 June 2021, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Bangkok finally approved Thai Airways’ 400 billion baht (US$12.2 billion) debt restructuring plan . It was a long-awaited court judgment after the national carrier last year recorded a net loss of 141.2 billion baht (US$4.3 billion) and filed for bankruptcy. Thai Airways is not the only national carrier in Southeast Asia suffering from mounting debt. Singapore Airlines and Vietnam Airlines, both state-owned,

Author: Bill Sharp, Honolulu Taiwan will vote on four referendum items on 18 December , the result of which could make or break the remainder of President Tsai Ing-wen’s time in office. The referendum was rescheduled from 28 August by the Central Election Commission due to the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan. Taiwan is now at level three of its four-level warning system, resulting in an island-wide soft lockdown. While 31 per cent of the population have received one inoculation against COVID-19, only 1.6 per cent are fully vaccinated. Further complicating the situation, Taiwan is wrestling with a spike in infections due to the Delta variant. Looking for ways to win back public support, the opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) led the organisation of the four referendum issues. Concerned that the COVID-19 situation would keep voters at home, the KMT had hoped for a rescheduled referendum. A higher voter turnout could glean the KMT additional support that they could carry into the 2022

Authors: Elliot Silverberg, Pacific Forum and Daniel Aum, Georgia Institute of Technology In June 2021, the United States and the European Union announced the creation of a joint trade and technology council, an initiative that aims to put democracies at the forefront of writing the rules governing digital trade. Despite their embrace of shared liberal values, the member nations will have to reconcile conflicting national interests . The council will also face resistance from China, which continues to extend the influence of its authoritarian model over the digital landscape. As nations jockey for position, the United States should expand its multilateral efforts in Asia — beginning with a three-way digital trade deal with Japan and South Korea. In recent debates, the United States and the EU have tussled over the concept of ‘ digital sovereignty ’. The issues mainly centre around who owns the data, what cross-border digital activities should be taxed and how technology companies s