Author: Arnaldo Purba, ANU

In light of hugely expensive infrastructure projects and diminishing urban housing affordability, the Indonesian government recently announced that a new land tax package is under discussion. Besides increasing state revenue, the new policy is expected to suppress speculative land buying with the intention to ease land prices. Read more…

Author: Dong Dong Zhang, ANU

Amid China’s seemingly relentless economic rise, why has its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) centralised power under Xi Jinping? Answering this question requires an understanding of the sense of impending crisis that has plagued the CCP leadership in recent times. Read more…

Author: Mathew Davies, ANU

The democratisation of Myanmar, culminating in the National League for Democracy’s assumption of power in early 2016, was meant to mark a step forward for the Rohingya. The hopes of the international community, Myanmar’s partners in ASEAN and the Rohingya themselves have been bitterly disappointed. Read more…

Authors: Wendy Dobson, University of Toronto, and Tom Westland, IHEID

Domestic financial liberalisation and market opening have progressed at different speeds in Asian economies over the past four decades. In the wake of financial crises, more attention has been paid to sequencing domestic reforms to financial markets with reforms to deepen integration through trade and investment. Read more…

Authors: Mieczysław P Boduszyński and Tom Le, Pomona College

Former US president Barack Obama sought to move the United States away from what he saw as costly, distracting and unwinnable entanglements in the Middle East. Instead, he pivoted his foreign policy efforts towards Asia where he believed that US military, political and economic engagement could reap much greater rewards for the country. Read more…

Author: Editors, East Asia Forum

This month’s state elections in India saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi greatly consolidate his political clout.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) victory was overwhelming in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest state with over 220 million people — were it independent UP would be the fifth most populous country in the world. Read more…

Author: Arun Swamy, University of Guam

This month’s Indian state elections provided a major boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In addition to the election in India’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), elections were held in four small states from every region of the country — Uttarakhand in the north, Punjab in the northwest, Manipur in the northeast and Goa in the southwest. Read more…