Much of the world's media focused on the direct implications
for Europe stemming from US President Donald Trump's summit last weekend with
Vladimir Putin and his subsequent meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a group
of European leaders.
James D.J. Brown looked at the implications for East Asia
stemming from these diplomatic gatherings.
Brown writes that the US president's pandering to the
Russian dictator and failure to support Ukraine bodes ill, not just for
Europe, but for US allies in East Asia.
He makes three key points:
1- In rolling out the red carpet for Putin, a man subject to
an arrest warrant for war crimes from the International Criminal Court, Trump
is flaunting his disregard for a rules-based international order. This matters
enormously to countries in East Asia, including Japan, whose security and
prosperity is based on the principle that larger states cannot seize territory
from weaker neighbors through military force.
2- The concern is that, having dealt with Putin over the
heads of the Ukrainians, Trump could do the same with China, and make 'a big,
beautiful' deal with Xi Jinping regarding Taiwan.
3- US allies in the region will be concerned about Trump's
increasing unreliability and impressionability as shown by his flip-flopping on
Russia policy.
Also on the American leader, William Pesek argues that Xi
must be loving how Trump is remaking the US in China's image.
He writes, "Trump's Chinafication project can be seen
in his effort to morph the Federal Reserve into the People's Bank of China,
obscure economic data, defang the courts, take government stakes in major
companies like Intel and demand a 15% cut of Nvidia's chip sales to China. The
White House getting a 'golden share' stake free of charge in Nippon Steel's
deal for US Steel pulsates with Politburo energy.”
"The circus atmosphere pervading Trump 2.0 means time
is on China's side. Optimism that Xi will be the one making an offer Trump
cannot refuse has Shanghai traders ready to pop the champagne corks. And, who
knows, they may be right," Pesek adds.
Outside of the Trump-sphere, Vivian Toh explains why Huawei's
HarmonyOS has struggled to adopt smaller apps, while Ben Cordier and Eve Yang
make the case for Asian job markets being able to weather global economic
uncertainty.
