Category: Asia

Pandemic populist pandemonium? Dictators using coronavirus to strengthen grip

     

A contagion on the scale of the coronavirus may offer authoritarians a greater opportunity than any event short of war, Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council… Read more »

Hard truths about China’s ‘soft power’: How Beijing exploits pandemic

     

History accelerates in crises. This pandemic may not itself transform the world, but it can accelerate changes already under way, notes FT analyst Martin Wolf: One ongoing change has been… Read more »

Democratic adaptability vs autocratic ruthlessness: Coronavirus impacts great power competition

     

The major dividing line in effective crisis response will not place autocracies on one side and democracies on the other, argues Stanford’s Francis Fukuyama. Rather, there will be some high-performing… Read more »

China’s ‘misplaced pandemic propaganda’ machine let loose on coronavirus

     

As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, China has shifted its propaganda machine into high gear, in an effort to change the narrative about the virus’s origins and the Chinese response. But… Read more »

COVID-19: A ‘breakthrough moment’ for China’s sharp power in global battle of narratives?

     

    Tomorrow’s front page of The Financial Times (above) confirms that the UK is the latest democracy to adopt unprecedented measures in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic…. Read more »

Why democracies handle crises better than authoritarians

     

An independent democracy advocacy organization is warning that authoritarian regimes are using the global coronavirus outbreak to suppress freedoms of speech and restrict fundamental rights outside of the scope of… Read more »

Iran, China and Venezuela called out on human rights abuses

     

Authoritarian regimes are suppressing peoples’ democratic aspirations with severe human rights “violations and abuses” to hinder any actions that threaten established power, according to the new U.S. State Department’s 2019 Country… Read more »

How the coronavirus ‘exposes lie at the heart of Communist China’

     

As the world tries to contain the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, it needs to heed the message coming from Chinese democrats, which is that we all have a stake… Read more »

When democracies hit midlife crisis

     

Democracy in the Philippines turned 34 last week. The nation commemorated the peaceful mass demonstration that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power, analyst Nicole Curato observes. A group of protesters… Read more »

‘Changing the Face of Politics’: Women shaking Pakistan’s patriarchy

     

He calls himself “Pakistan’s biggest feminist”, but soap opera writer Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar sparked a national row this week after he hurled abuse at a women’s rights activist on live television,… Read more »