In Asian media this week: Seoul, Pyongyang fear being ignored. Plus: India edges towards closer US connection; Domestic violence surges in South Korea; Beijing brings private sector back into the fold; Military making comeback in Indonesia; Kolkata’s yellow taxis taking last fares.
Donald Trump is busily ingratiating himself with Vladimir Putin and is ever-so-casually withdrawing US support for Ukraine. And Asia looks on, anxiously.
An analytical piece in Singapore’s The Straits Times, says that as concerns mount that Trump might “sell out” Ukraine, nowhere is the fear of being victims of US-Russia power plays more keenly felt than on the Korean Peninsula – with the south under the US sphere of influence and the north aligned with Russia.
“Both are worried that in Mr Trump’s and Mr Putin’s desire to strike a broader deal, their interests will end up sacrificed,” says the author, senior columnist Lin Suling.
Pyongyang last year forged a strategic partnership — a defence pact, security co-operation and the supply of arms, ammunition and solders — with Russia. This gave it heft in international affairs.
North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine war may now be a bargaining chip that Putin could trade away, Lin says. “If the war in Ukraine ends, Russia has no need for North Korean munitions or cannon fodder,” she says. “That would leave North Korea back at square one.”
And this would be a starting point for talks between the US and North Korea. Trump, she says, recently made comments recognising that North Korea is a nuclear power – although it is not yet policy.
In South Korea, the mood is strikingly sombre. As Trump can be unpredictable, and adopts a transactional approach to foreign policy, fears grow that South Korea might be sidelined.
Letting North Korea keep nuclear weapons would cause big problems for Seoul. “Allowing North Korea to develop nuclear weapons and leaving South Korea out of any US talks with North Korea are bright red lines for Seoul,” says South Korean international relations academic Lee Shin-wha.
All Seoul can do for now is give Trump fewer reasons to cut it off.
“South Korea understands the need for burden-sharing on defence and security and is committed to raising its share of the cost of stationing US troops in the country,” Lee says.
Delhi-Washington links approaching critical stage
The summit earlier this month between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump showed the US-India relationship might be approaching a critical fork in the road – and the rest of Asia might need to take notice.
It might signal India is moving even closer to effectively being an US ally, said a commentary in Singapore’s The Straits Times.
The opinion piece said social media in India had rhapsodised about the courtesies Trump bestowed on Modi, including Trump’s suggestion he would consider the sale to India of F-35 frontline stealth strike aircraft.
“It has not cost either side to talk about a potential sale because of the signal it sends around the world of close strategic ties between the world’s biggest democracies,” the commentary, by senior columnist Ravi Velloor, said. “Not least to China.”
The two also pledged to accelerate defence technology co-operation across space, air defence, missile, maritime and undersea technologies. The closer links suggest India’s foot-dragging on advancing the Quad as a security formation — a point of great irritation for Trump — might be ending.
“Diplomats on both sides have worked overtime during the past weeks to stitch up a security partnership that, if all comes to fruition, would move India even closer to the status of a US ally, for all intents and purposes,” Velloor said.
But India would hasten slowly on developing its strategic kinship with the US.
“Given Mr Trump’s penchant for the grand deal, India will want to insulate itself from being used as a bargaining chip in the tough US-China negotiations that are likely to happen sooner or later,” Velloor said.
“But for the moment, all the talk of common platforms and interoperability of weapons helps spread the word that India is under some sort of American security cover.”
An opinion piece in The Indian Express newspaper had a more cynical tone.
What matters to Trump is how powerful a country is, it said. The less powerful had to accept the supremacy of the powerful.
In the summit meeting last week, Modi had to work within this Trumpian framework, commentary said. India was the junior partner, it said. The benefits of the summit were greater for the US.
The meeting was more concerned with transactions than synergies, said an opinion piece in The Japan Times. But it noted Modi had told Trump that India’s vision for development by 2047, the 100th anniversary of independence, could be called “MIGA” in American terms. Modi had posted on social media that MAGA plus MIGA could turn into a MEGA partnership for prosperity.
Women’s deaths or threats every 19 hours
Intimate partner violence is a problem that bedevils all societies, but it is rarely aired in Asian media. The Korea Times changed that pattern this week with an op-ed about what it called the country’s surge in partner abuse.
The article said that in 2009, 70 women in South Korea were murdered by their current or former male partners, with seven cases of attempted murder. By 2023 the number of deaths had almost doubled to 138, while attempted murders reached 311.
“These statistics translate into one woman facing a threat or being killed every 19 hours,” the article said. “Stalking incidents, often a precursor to more severe forms of gendered violence, have also skyrocketed. Reported cases surged from 5468 in 2019 to 31,284 in 2023… Nonetheless, IPV remains overwhelmingly under-reported.”
The author, mental health researcher Ma Kyung-hee, said intimate partner violence was rarely spontaneous, especially when it involved stalking and murder. “Instead, it is often rooted in coercive control – a deliberate pattern of abusive behaviours aimed to gain and maintain control over the victims’ lives,” she said.
Ma said Korea should broaden the legal definition of “intimate partner” beyond family ties and expand the scope of recognised violence, including acknowledging the critical role played by coercive control.
She also said Korea had to confront cultural forces that contributed to the normalisation of male violence against women.
“A pivotal strategy involves fostering a healthier understanding of masculinity,” Ma said. “Equally important is the broader recognition of the far-reaching consequences of IPV – not only for victims, but also for children, families and even those who perpetrate the abuse.
“Shifting towards a culture of mutual respect and collective well-being ultimately benefits society as a whole.”
Xi greets Jack Ma at pro-business meeting
As China gears up for Trump Trade War II, Beijing is bringing the private sector back into the fold, assuring private companies of their essential role in the country’s economy.
President Xi Jinping this week held a high-level business symposium, attended by top businesspeople and senior government leaders.
It was the first such meeting since 2018, marking a shift from regulatory crackdowns that deflated investor confidence and the outlook for the future of the private sector.
Among government attendees were three other members of the Politburo Standing Committee, including Premier Li Qiang.
Business attendees included Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, who has been on the outer since 2020, and Tencent chief Pony Ma Huateng. South China Morning Post reported Xi greeted both personally at the beginning of the symposium.
Also present was Liang Wenfeng, founder of the AI company DeepSeek.
“In today’s China, nothing carries more weight than an explicit endorsement from Xi,” the SCMP story said. “A gesture of open support for private companies from the president is enough to spur investment and government activity, presaging a potential capital market rebound and new policies to turn rhetoric into material action.”
Xi promised private companies would have the same access to the country’s market as state enterprises, with no impediments to taking part in infrastructure projects or getting finance from the banking system.
A separate SCMP story quoted Xi as saying now was the right time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to showcase their talents and make a significant contribution.
The story noted confidence among investors and entrepreneurs had been depressed by a sluggish domestic economy recovery, worsening tensions with the US and earlier regulatory crackdowns on some corporate giants (including Alibaba) in the name of tackling monopolistic behaviour.
The main significance of the meeting lay in sending a signal to private enterprises, said Su Yue, principal economist for China with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“The selection of the companies also reflects that development remains Beijing’s top priority, rather than prioritising security at the cost of growth,” she said.
Military’s role risks authoritarian rule
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has a penchant for filling strategic government posts with military figures, says The Jakarta Post. This is against a 2004 law that says military officers may take up civilian positions only after they have been discharged, the paper says in an editorial.
It says the recent appointment of an army general to head the State Logistics Agency sent a message that the military were returning to dual roles at the expense of civilian supremacy – as was the case under the late president Suharto’s New Order regime.
“The New Order regime was marked by significant economic growth, but also widespread human rights abuse and suppression of political freedoms,” the editorial says.
Prabowo is a former army general (who was dismissed in 1998) and the editorial says his presidency has seen a growing presence of the military in government.
“Many of his picks for ministerial, deputy ministerial and state agency head posts are people with a military background,” the paper says. “He even brought members of his bloated cabinet to a military-like bootcamp at the beginning of his presidency as his way of instilling discipline.”
Prabowo might see a military style of government as helpful in cutting through the country’s sclerotic bureaucracy in order to get things done, the editorial says.
“But we have reasons to worry about expanding the roles of the military beyond its domain as defender of the nation against external threats,” it says. “It is hard to hold the military accountable given its lack of transparency and its culture of impunity.
“We cannot dismiss concerns that the [military’s] increasing involvement in civilian affairs may pave the way for a potential return to authoritarian rule.”
Famed cabs head for final destination
Black cabs are a familiar sight in London. In Kolkata, the transport symbol is a fleet of yellow taxis.
But these cars are now a vanishing symbol of the city’s past. The noisy, old-tech cabs are being forced off the road and they will soon disappear.
The taxis are snub-nosed Hindustan Ambassador cars that first rolled off the assembly line in 1957 and have barely changed since. They were modelled on Britain’s solid but unpretentious Morris Oxford.
A feature article in Bangkok Post says the Ambassador once ruled India’s potholed streets. It was the cornerstone of India’s automotive industry for many years but sales slumped from the 1980s onwards in the face of competition from more modern cars. Production stopped in 2014.
Kolkata, the headquarters of Hindustan Motors, is the last city where the cars can be seen in significant numbers. About 2500 Ambassador taxis are still working but that number is down from 7000 a year ago. A further 1000 will be retired this year. A recent court ruling will clear the roads of the lumbering vehicles by 2027.
Kailash Sahani, an Ambassador taxi driver for 40 years, said he loved his car like his son. “It’s a simple car – no electronics, no frills,” he said.
But the car’s poor quality standards gave rise to a joke about the number of defects in the typical Ambassador – the only thing in the car that doesn’t make a noise is the horn.
David Armstrong is an Australian journalist and editor with decades of experience, including as editor-in-chief of The Australian, editor of The Bulletin and The Canberra Times and deputy editor the Daily Telegraph in Australia. He is also former editor and editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, former president of the Bangkok Post company, former chair of the Phnom Penh Post company and is current chair of ucanews.com.