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June 2015

June 2015

Vietnam moves cautiously on constitutional reform

BUI NGOC SON and PIP NICHOLSON glimpse some positive responses to calls by activists for constitutional reform in Vietnam. On 4 February 2013 former Justice Minister Nguyen Dinh Loc presented a petition, signed by 72 scholars from various disciplines, to the Constitutional Amendment Committee calling for fundamental and broad-ranging changes to Vietnam’s constitution. Now referred

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Diasporas key to greater Australian engagement with Asia

A new report from the Australian Council of Learned Academies argues that smart engagement with Asia is essential for securing Australia’s future. Australia’s engagement with Asia has too often been characterised by short-termism, opportunism and focus on monetary gain. Smart engagement, by contrast, means more than the pragmatic emphasis on economic benefit, and working towards

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Democracy takes fragile root on China’s edge

JIE CHEN sees similarities between Tibet and Taiwan in the Tibetan government-in-exile’s struggle to democratise. At the invitation of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)—better known as the Tibetan government-in-exile—I recently joined several overseas-based Chinese scholars on a visit to the CTA’s headquarters in Dharamsala, India. We were warmly received by senior CTA members and some

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The making of Xinjiang Han

Much has been much written about the exploitation and cultural repression of the Uyghur population in China’s far-west province of Xinjiang but, says TOM CLIFF, far less attention has been paid to the Han settlers. Settlement in the urban areas of Southern Xinjiang has recently been made easier in an attempt to encourage Han immigration.

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