Asian Insider: No honeymoon for Taiwan’s new leader | Getting a ‘Thai tattoo’

Dear ST reader,

We hope you’ve been keeping well.

The world’s movers and shakers have gathered on the snowy slopes of Davos, Switzerland this week to exchange views on the big issues affecting the world today, from wars and inequality to climate change and artificial intelligence.

China’s Premier Li Qiang used the platform of the annual World Economic Forum to announce his country’s better-than-expected 2023 growth figures, a day ahead of its official release. This unusual move was designed to signal hope and confidence in the world’s second-largest economy, analysts tell our correspondent Aw Cheng Wei.

Singapore’s leaders were also represented at the forum, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam speaking about developing human capital and Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo calling for regulation of artificial intelligence and deepfakes.

Closer to home, Taiwan’s elections last weekend returned another Democratic Progressive Party leader, Lai Ching-te, as President, but the party failed to secure a majority in the legislature. Expect governance paralysis and inter-party politicking ahead, reports Ho Ai Li from Taipei.

In other upcoming polls, our Indonesia bureau gives the lowdown on how campaigning is playing out online and whether the cute dancing and cats will translate into votes on Feb 14.

Turning to geopolitics, associate editor Ravi Velloor analyses the new global competition heating up in the Arctic, while Mara Cepeda reports on how closer Indonesia-Philippines ties could bolster Manila’s claims in the South China Sea. If podcasts are more your thing, follow our Asian Insider series here.

Rounding up our offerings this week are Tan Tam Mei’s reminiscences from her stint in Bangkok and Walter Sim’s on-the-ground accounts of life after the devastating earthquake in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture.