China’s attempt to discipline Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi’s statement on a Chinese attack on Taiwan threatening Japan’s security, may instead strengthen the very alliances Beijing hoped to fracture. By using symbolic economic instruments, invoking the UNSC, and amplifying nationalist messaging while avoiding mass public mobilisation, China signals displeasure without risking internal instability. Yet these same measures push Japan ever deeper into U.S.-aligned networks.

The rise of Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister with firm conservative credentials, carries both symbolic weight and political controversy. Her early decisions suggest clarity of intention but also highlight the structural weaknesses and diplomatic sensitivities that will shape her tenure. To keep her ratings high, she has to stabilise her minority government at home, and manage the China, U.S. and ASEAN relationships with tact.

India-China relations move in waves of hostility and stability. The bilateral may be re-entering a period of stability, last seen in 2018. If the caveats of security, mutual sensitivity and a level playing field are respected, then much can be achieved by reviving the initiatives begun after PM Modi’s visit to China in 2015 and two informal summits in Wuhan in 2018, and Mahabalipuram in 2019.

In China’s White Paper on national security, the country congratulates itself for maintaining peace and development and bringing “stability in a tempestuous world.” It also pats itself on the back for “creating unity and self-reliance in the Global South” thus leading to an adjustment of the international balance of power. Worth studying are its global initiatives – a new governance order.

A slowdown of the Chinese economy, and the shift, particularly by MNCs, from China to other more competitive locations has opened up business opportunities for latecomers to supply chains in the developing world. Evidence suggests that Southeast Asia and some South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, could be beneficiaries of the supply chain shift, particularly in labour-intensive segments.

Geopolitics is increasingly intertwined with the economic destiny of South Asia. Even before the U.S. tariffs were rolled out, growing polycrises had hit the global economy, which has been struggling since the pandemic. South Asia seems a relatively bright spark of regional trade and growth. This paper analyses South Asia’s trade architecture in the backdrop of a sluggish world economy in the 2020s, and makes recommendations for closer regional economic integration.

Chinese state media and other outlets are increasingly using disinformation to undermine Taiwan's political stability, sway public opinion, and erode national unity. The government in Taipei mitigates this threat by employing a range of high- and low-tech solutions. Other countries will benefit by using the Taiwan model to fortify their democratic institutions and enhance their readiness against an advanced arsenal of disinformation tools.

China’s hostile actions in the East and South China Seas have led to a deepening of naval partnerships within the Indo-Pacific such as the U.S., Japan, Philippines, Australia and South Korea. As crises in West Asia escalate and the strategic contest between the U.S. and China hardens in the Pacific Ocean, India – placed strategically in the Indo-Pacific – can’t neglect either the west nor east.

In his new book, former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China, Vijay Gokhale analyzes how newly independent India navigated Anglo-American competition and the Cold War ideologies of China in the 1940s and 1950s. The author focuses on key events from the recognition of the Peoples’ Republic of China to the two Taiwan Straits crises. His insights of the period resonate with today's U.S.-China rivalry, and highlights India's evolving role in the Indo-Pacific.

Since 1947, India has had a proud record of development cooperation. It began even though it was newly independent and itself developing, but created a camaraderie with movements in other emerging countries. Now after 75 years, its time to move toward an FDI-led model, which will particularly help reduce the rising indebtedness in the developing world.