East Asian Policy

China—US trade war looks like a modern version of the Thucydides Trap. The devastating consequences of the trade war can be avoided if China takes the drastic step to open its market to US firms and allow foreign firms to have a level playing field to compete with Chinese firms. It is time that Chinese consumers embrace products “made beyond China”.

Strengthening economic cooperation with the European Union (EU) and Japan would give China the leverage to counterbalance the pressure of the United States. China, however, should be ready to offer significant concessions in opening its domestic market too.

“Indo-Pacific” is a new term in the geopolitical lexicon and a response to rapidly evolving global power shifts that currently induce strategic realignments among major regional players. It is increasingly used by political leaders, policymakers, journalists and academic commentators and in government documents. While Indo-Pacific is used frequently today, each proponent of the term attaches varied emphases, guided by their own strategic prisms. The Indo-Pacific concept has yet to be institutionalised. Some offshoots, such as the rebirthed idea of a quadrilateral framework among the key proponents of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and the proposal to jointly fund infrastructure projects in Asia, appear to be in direct competition with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. How the Indo-Pacific concept would affect the regional power balance remains unclear. However, neither the concept nor the strategic thinking and actions it inspires will disappear anytime soon.

With negative growth of 3.5% in 2017, North Korea’s economy suffered its worst setback in a decade due to the effects of international economic sanctions. The Trump—Kim meeting on 12 June 2018 in Singapore raised hopes of lifting sanctions on North Korea and of bolstering North Korea’s economy. However, North Korea’s disagreement with the United States over its denuclearisation process and China—US competition in geopolitical interests in the Korean peninsula may overshadow its economic outlook.

This article presents a review of the progress in economic restructuring in the Chinese economy. It explores the role of consumption versus investment in economic growth, trends in inequality, growth of the state and non-state sectors, and balancing between short-term and long-term development goals. It also discusses the major challenges in China’s economy and hence Chinese policymakers’ possible responses in the coming decade.

China, with the biggest electricity system, now leads the world on its global share in electricity production and consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emission. However, its incomplete power system reforms left an uncoordinated development between the generator and the grid. Despite intensive investment and construction of power generation infrastructure, the lagging grid reform has become a bottleneck in the sector. The benefits of electricity sector reform, if designed and proceeded carefully, can be substantial.

Since 2016, China has officially regarded blockchain technology as a subversive innovation that will fundamentally transform major industries. Current blockchain projects in China are dominated by private or consortium blockchains that have their accessibility firmly controlled; for public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, access is free for all. Not surprisingly, by weakening state control of digital data, public blockchains may neutralise China’s decades of efforts in building internet filtering systems. The existing development trajectory of private and consortium blockchains is likely to advance steadfastly, and citizens and companies in China may be required to use state-controlled blockchains.

China’s 13th National People’s Congress revised the state constitution and set up a new national institution, the National Supervisory Commission. This institution aims to prevent corruption and ensure the integrity of public officials. It has institutionalised Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption efforts in his first five-year term. It is also an important and effective instrument for Xi to consolidate his power despite the many challenges.

Since 2012, the Chinese government has released several national-level plans to develop the big data industry, with an aim to improve governance and to push Chinese manufacturing up the value chain. Over the years, the Chinese big data industry has experienced rapid but uneven growth.

Although more Chinese companies and government departments are adopting big data technologies, administrative fragmentation and privacy protection policies remain obstacles to further development.

In recent years, Muslim-related ethnic tensions and the Chinese government’s iron-fisted response have drawn controversies and attention from international society. The Islamic issue in China is intertwined with ethnic issues as a majority of the Muslims in China are ethnic minorities. The thrust of China’s policy for Islam is to promote its fusion with Chinese culture and to prevent influence of Arabic customs. These policies have failed to alleviate tensions between the Han-majority population and Muslim groups, and the government will face greater challenges in the future.

The reform of the judicial disciplinary system is an important part of China’s judicial reform. The purpose of the Disciplinary Committee for Judges and Prosecutors is to re-establish the judicial disciplinary system, including specific procedures, such as producing evidence, making arguments and statements, to protect the professional rights of judicial personnel.

This article examines the main models of the extraterritorial judicial disciplinary system, and analyses the trend and characteristics of current judges’ disciplinary system reform. The reform’s largest problem lies in the positioning of the judges’ disciplinary committee and the distribution of judge’s disciplinary power which need to be clearly defined.