Asia Watch Archive

Beijing has developed a device capable of “severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication lines,” according to The South China Morning Post.

Foreign ministers from China, Japan, and South Korea convened in Tokyo last week for a day of meetings revolving around trade, foreign policy, regional and global ‘hotspots,’ and the airing of grievances new and old.

Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-funded news outlet delivering uncensored information to audiences in China, North Korea, and elsewhere across Asia, will be hollowed out following a probe by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly hosted her G7 counterparts last week for a three-day meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, where top diplomats managed to agree on a joint statement that was as noteworthy for its insertions as it was for its omissions.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization labelled the spread of COVID-19 a “pandemic,” one headline in a drawn-out day marking the start of a surreal era of quarantines and containment, ‘distancing’ and 'doomscrolling,’ and variants and vaccines.

March has come in like a lion for Canada, with its two biggest trading partners threatening wide-ranging (and ever-changing) tariffs, plunging the export-dependent economy into uncertainty right as a new prime minister takes the reins and a spring election beckons.

As Washington targets long-time allies and formalizes its ‘shoot first, aim later' trade policy, Vietnam — the U.S.’s tenth-largest trading partner — has so far emerged unscathed.

U.S. President Donald Trump rained on Beijing’s parade this week, hiking across-the-board tariffs on Chinese goods a further 10 per cent (to a total of 20 per cent) as China’s most important political gathering kicked off, and imposing a punishing 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, with a lower rate for Canadian energy.

In response, Beijing applied 15 per cent counter-tariffs on American chicken, corn, cotton, and wheat, and 10 per cent tariffs on beef, dairy, pork, and other agricultural products.

Asian countries largely stuck to their guns on Monday, with most voting in favour of a Ukraine-led resolution at the UN General Assembly even as the U.S. reportedly urged allies to vote against it.

A surprise live-fire drill conducted by China’s navy in international waters between Australia and New Zealand forced dozens of commercial flights to reroute on Friday and raised fresh questions about Beijing’s desire to stabilize relations with both countries.

HMCS Ottawa, a Canadian frigate with a crew of around 240, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, eliciting praise from Taipei and criticism from Beijing, in what was the sixth transit of the strait by a Canadian vessel since the launch of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy in 2022.

 Asia was spared from the scolding of U.S. Vice President JD Vance this past weekend at the Munich Security Conference, where a fiery speech by the vice president “stunned” some European delegates and stirred debate about Washington’s foreign policy priorities.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chaired the AI Action Summit in Paris, France, earlier this week alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, with Modi declaring that India would be “happy” to host the next major AI summit.

Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru travelled to Washington, D.C., for a "hectic” but otherwise frictionless one-day stay last week, in a visit with U.S. President Donald Trump that reaffirmed the two allies’ robust defence, trade, and investment ties.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced her coalition government’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year on Sunday, a C$836-billion package designed to accelerate economic growth, boost private sector investment, and “enhance the spending power of India’s rising middle class.”

On Monday afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump's across-the-board tariffs on Canadian goods were postponed for 30 days after Washington and Ottawa came to a deal that will see Canada bolster surveillance at the border against organized crime, fentanyl, and money laundering.

There is “no evidence” to suggest that Canadian institutions have been “seriously affected by foreign interference” or that there are “traitors” in Parliament, according to the long-anticipated final report from Canada’s foreign interference commission.

The market-jolting emergence of an innovative, Chinese-developed artificial intelligence model wiped US$1 trillion off American tech stocks on Monday, reigniting an AI ‘arms race’ between the U.S. and China and highlighting, for Ottawa, the need for a major rethink on AI strategy and investment.

Top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met over the weekend in Langkawi, Malaysia, to apply new pressure on Myanmar’s military junta and press for a ceasefire.

A junta representative outlined plans for an upcoming election — largely seen as a ploy to boost credibility for the country’s ruling generals — to the foreign ministers.

After four tempestuous years on the outside, U.S. President Donald Trump burst back onto the scene on Monday, reclaiming the presidency and pledging to “put America first” by overhauling trade, building the “strongest military the world has ever seen,” and slapping tariffs and taxes on other countries to usher in “the golden age of America.”