Hello.
Hot. Cold. Wet. Dry. The weather has been in the news (again) this past week, with Chinese cities seeing temperatures hit a record high for March, a sweltering heat wave in Sydney, and floods in Johor.
Continuous downpours broke rain records in Singapore last week and temperatures dropped as low as 21.1 degrees Celsius in some places. But is it really “winter weather”? This fascination with the weather has gone into overdrive, says Adam Hancock.
In China, Xi Jinping was on Friday formally elected to an unprecedented third term as president, while former Shanghai party chief Li Qiang is expected to ascend to the country’s second-most powerful seat this weekend.
During the annual “two sessions” meetings over the past week, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang called on ASEAN to stay clear of power rivalry between big countries, highlighting the tricky balancing act for the region, says Oh Ei Sun. China upping its defence spending and striking a softer tone on Taiwan may seem like mixed messaging, but it makes perfect sense to Beijing, says foreign policy adviser Christian Le Miere.
With economic stability a priority and the lowest GDP growth target in decades, Coface economist Bernard Aw says China’s slowing growth is simply the price to pay for a maturing economy.
We hope you enjoy the selection of commentaries this week.
Alison Jenner
Senior Editor, Commentary
.jpg?itok=fHkrjj4c "Making sense of messages from China's 'two sessions' 35")
