Asian Insider: Will Trump’s tariff threat lead to another trade war with China? | Game of Thrones plays out in Manila

Associate Foreign Editor

Updated

Published

Nov 28, 2024, 07:54 PM

Dear ST reader,

We hope you’ve been keeping well.

US President-elect Donald Trump appeared to fire his first salvo at China on Tuesday, saying he will impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on imported Chinese goods when he takes office on Jan 20. Our Beijing correspondent Lim Min Zhang examines if this could lead to another trade war between the two giants.

Meanwhile, US bureau chief Bhagyashree Garekar explores Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency to see if the tech bros helming it, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, can tackle the so-called “deep state” bureaucracy.

Over in Asia, China is grappling with its own internal politics. A graft probe is said to have been launched against Defence Minister Dong Jun, which could complicate its military’s foreign engagement. Senior correspondent Yew Lun Tian has the inside story.

Still on defence matters, Ravi Velloor believes that Asia must ringfence itself from the spillover of the Ukraine war, now past its 1,000th day.

Meanwhile, Trump has said he will attempt to sever ties between China and Russia, but breaking this strategic partnership is easier said than done, write Jonathan Eyal and Tan Dawn Wei.

Finally, in this week’s missive from India, Rohini Mohan examines the many ways Hinduism has adopted technology, including deploying robotic elephants and digital donations.