China’s new ‘Artificial Intelligence + Education’ Action Plan seeks systemic reform of higher education, treating AI as a way to improve graduate quality amid a weakening labour market. A national ...

Vietnam’s rapid headline growth is driven almost entirely by foreign‑invested and government‑favoured conglomerates, leaving domestic small-to-medium enterprises and workers behind. Foreign-invested ...

Though Chinese AI models are approaching or matching leading US systems on public benchmarks, this does not necessarily mean that export controls have failed. Chinese firms still own only a fraction ...

Japan’s rising anti-immigration reflects the growing influence of populist narratives that have supplied a ready-made explanation for existing anxieties about foreigners. Decades of accepting foreign ...

Vietnam’s US$4 billion Ca Mau–Hon Khoai bridge and seaport project is presented as an overdue development initiative for one of the country’s poorest regions, but it may also help Hanoi preserve its ...

South Korea’s semiconductor exports reached US$44.8 billion in June 2026. But the industry’s dependence on China as both a market and production base and on US regulatory permission to operate ...

As the rules-based order fragments and US–China strategic competition intensifies, Vietnam is emerging as a middle power seeking to shape, rather than merely respond to, regional and international ...

Japan’s 2026 shunto wage negotiations delivered average wage increases of over 5 per cent for a third consecutive year. But gains are concentrated in large corporations, while small and medium-sized ...

US semiconductor export controls on China are both reducing China’s access to chipmaking equipment and changing the geography through which that access is organised. Several key parts of the ...

The May 2026 Xi–Trump summit produced mixed results and mixed reactions. Those who see the summit as a success point to the two countries' agreement to pursue ‘constructive strategic stability’, ...

A thaw in the China–India relationship has been underway since October 2024 when the two governments announced a border agreement. This followed clashes in 2020, which marked the worst period of ...

The war in the Middle East is driving both an acute humanitarian crisis and broader disruptions to global energy markets. Southeast Asia is particularly exposed as around two-thirds of the region’s ...