Vietnam’s exports to the US jumped nearly 40 per cent from the year before, surging past US$25 billion in the first half of the year. However, experts warned that these gains from the trade war could be tempered by a future influx of imports from China – especially in hi-tech industries.

SINGAPORE’S CRACKDOWN ON FAKE NEWS

Singapore’s fake news law: protecting the truth, or restricting free debate?

The law has been invoked four times since it took effect in October, targeting political opposition and giving rise to concerns that it will be used to ensnare political critics ahead of a general election.

US-CHINA TECH WAR SPILLS INTO ASIA

Washington’s tech war with Beijing came to the rest of the continent as the United States pressed its partners to follow its lead in blacklisting Chinese telecommunications firms over national security and espionage concerns.

Elsewhere, US efforts to stem the spread of Chinese technology feared to contain hidden “back doors” had little traction.

My way or the Huawei: how US ultimatum over China’s 5G giant fell flat in Southeast Asia

In June, the Philippines became the first Southeast Asian country with 5G after carrier Globe Telecom launched its service using Huawei technology.

Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand all trialled 5G services with the Chinese firm throughout the year, leaving the door open to its involvement in their next-generation communications networks.

NORTH KOREA’S DENUCLEARISATION LOSES MOMENTUM

Collapsed Trump-Kim talks a risk for North Korea with silver linings for China and Japan

“Now we are on the cusp of returning in 2020 to the heightened tensions of 2017 because Pyongyang rejects substantive diplomacy and demands rewards for merely abstaining from provocations,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

PROTESTS IN ASIA

Unrest in Hong Kong stemming from plans to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China reverberated throughout Asia in 2019.

Hong Kong and mainland China students clash at rally at Australian university

CHANGING TIDES OF DIPLOMATIC ALLEGIANCE IN THE PACIFIC

China’s ‘great friendship’ with Micronesia grows warmer, leaving US with strategic headache in Pacific

The US ramped up efforts to strengthen its relationship with the three Pacific nations with which it maintains defence agreements known as the Compacts of Free Association, which give Washington exclusive military access to the waters of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Trump in May hosted the leaders of the three nations at the White House, and in August defence secretary Mike Pompeo said the agreements were being renegotiated, though no details have been forthcoming.

AUSTRALIA-CHINA TENSIONS FLARE

In August, Australian foreign minister Marise Payne issued a thinly veiled rebuke to the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane after the diplomat praised mainland Chinese students for “acts of patriotism” after they clashed with student activists for democracy in Hong Kong during a rally at the University of Queensland.

Yang Hengjun isn’t the first time Australia’s interests collided with China. Can Canberra be tougher?

In December, Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye held a rare press conference in which he predicted that ties would improve in 2020 after a “mixed” year, while taking aim at Canberra’s criticism of Beijing over its treatment of Uygurs and its ongoing detention of Yang Hengun.

FRICTION IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte signalled a shift toward a tougher stance in his country’s long-standing maritime dispute with China after being accused of selling out Philippine interests the previous year by signing an agreement on joint oil and gas development with Beijing.

‘Any suggestion?’ Philippine president Duterte asks after Xi Jinping reaffirms South China Sea claims

Ahead of his fifth meeting with Chinese President in Xi Jinping in August, the Philippine leader pledged to raise Beijing’s refusal to honour a 2016 international tribunal ruling that rejected Chinese claims to more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea. Beijing declined to reverse its stance, but the two leaders agreed not to let their conflicting positions get in the way of relations, Duterte’s spokesman said after their meeting.

“Beijing has increasingly treated the South China Sea as a ‘Chinese lake’ subject to its ‘indisputable sovereignty,’” said Richard Bitzinger, a visiting Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “As a result, the South China Sea has become, quite simply, a key defensive zone for the Chinese.”

INDIA DESCENDS INTO HINDU NATIONALISM

In a first for constitutionally secular India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in early December pushed a bill through parliament that included a citizenship provision based on religion – granting Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The provision was met with protests around the country, and has been challenged in the Supreme Court by two political parties on the basis that it clashes with India’s constitution.

Modi’s surgical strike on Muslims puts India at war with itself

The bill follows another major initiative of the Modi government which would require all 1.35 billion people in India to prove they belong on a National Register of Citizens. There are fears that the nationwide implementation of the bill could disenfranchise millions of Indian Muslims.

Analysts warn that the resulting unrest could be especially disastrous in light of the economic slowdown the country is facing. India’s economic growth rate has declined for six consecutive quarters, the longest drop-off in 23 years.

INCUMBENTS RE-ELECTED AS ASIA VOTES

Australia’s Scott Morrison, Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, India’s Narendra Modi and Thailand’s Prayuth Chan-ocha all retained their positions of power as more than a billion voters went to the polls in Asia this year.

But Widodo’s second term got off to a rocky start when thousands took to the streets ahead of his inauguration in October to protest proposed reforms to the country’s criminal laws and anti-corruption agency.

Pacific Islands talks ‘almost broke down’ over Australia’s tough line on climate change

Narendra Modi retained the presidency after India’s six-week election process, which handed a bruising defeat to the Indian National Congress party.

Australia’s Scott Morrison also kept the prime ministership, but was met with criticism by neighbouring leaders over his government’s lacklustre climate-change commitment.