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Across Asia, countries have signed the UNCRPD and to a greater or lesser extent are pursuing inclusive education (IE). In this article, we present case studies from Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and China analyzing them for common themes around the education of students intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and noting commonalities, challenges, and emerging issues. While the definition of IE (being the philosophy, process and practice of welcoming, valuing and supporting all learners in general education environments) and the conceptual distinction between integration and segregation are clear in the UNCRPD and subsequent comments, the terminology used in some of the countries is inconsistent with these definitions. This makes interpretation of reports from government instrumentalities difficult. In some cases, misuse of terminology allows justification of practices that are contrary to the UNCRPD. Terminology differences coupled with challenges of finding data related to the education of children with IDD, if the data exist, make a regional analysis of progress towards IE complex. In our paper, we have drawn on previous reviews and reports to discuss common issues and make suggestions for ways forward. Our findings add to the few other reviews from Asia on IE and draw attention to the continuing need for improved access to any education at all for learners with IDD. Provision of IE is caught up in dilemmas in the region about teacher preparation and professional learning, and how to provide specialist support in inclusive settings. School structure decisions including staffing provision and class sizes affect the education outcomes of students with IDD. School leadership, with the fundamental role of translating policy into practice, is critical for the development of IE and must be aligned with system and country priorities. Collaboration across the region has the potential to share best practice and continue to improve the educational opportunities for learners with IDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In much discussion surrounding the relationship between maritime disputes and fisheries resources, emphasis is given to the role of fisheries resources as a driver of the dispute or how states use fishing to further their interests through territoriality. Yet a narrow focus on maritime disputes obscures the broader ways in which fishing contributes to interstate relationships. This paper uses a political ecology and food regimes approach to demonstrate how seafood flows between the Philippines and China represent power relations. China exports a significant volume of low-value small fish and molluscs from its distant water fishery. The Philippines exports low numbers of high-value reef fish. Current Chinese aquaculture investments are minimal. Poaching forms another component of this seafood regime, which is marked by environmental unsustainability and unequal relations between the Philippines and China. This analysis highlights the value of seeing fishing and fishery resources as constitutive of a broader politicized environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Nineteen studies were identified that modelled S. japonicum control strategies. • Mathematical models of S. Japonicum have shifted towards the prevalence-based multi-host model. • Few mathematical models of S. Japonicum have considered other definitive hosts and seasonal fluctuations with mixed results. • Mathematical models have generally agreed on the inability of human treatment alone to reach elimination of S. Japonicum. • Few modelling studies have considered S. Japonicum in the Philippines. Schistosoma japonicum remains endemic in China and the Philippines. Substantial progress has been made in the control of Japonicum in both China and the Philippines. China is reaching elimination thanks to a concerted effort of control strategies. Mathematical modelling has been a key tool in the design of control strategies, in place of expensive randomised-controlled trials. We conducted a systematic review to investigate mathematical models of Japonicum control strategies in China and the Philippines. We conducted a systematic review on July 5, 2020, in four electronic bibliographic databases - PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS and Embase. Articles were screened for relevance and for meeting the inclusion criteria. Data extracted included authors, year of publication, year of data collection, setting and ecological context, objectives, control strategies, main findings, the form and content of the model including its background, type, representation of population dynamics, heterogeneity of hosts, simulation period, source of parameters, model validation and sensitivity analysis. Results After screening, 19 eligible papers were included in the systematic review. Seventeen considered control strategies in China and two in the Philippines. Two frameworks were identified; the mean-worm burden framework and the prevalence-based framework, the latter of which increasingly common. Most models considered human and bovine definitive hosts. There were mixed additional elements included in the models, such as alternative definitive hosts and the role of seasonality and weather. Models generally agreed upon the need for an integrated control strategy rather than reliance on mass drug administration alone to sustain reductions in prevalence. Mathematical modelling of Japonicum has converged from multiple approaches to modelling using the prevalence-based framework with human and bovine definitive hosts and find integrated control strategies to be most effective. Further research could investigate the role of other definitive hosts and model the effect of seasonal fluctuations in transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important contemporary driver of livelihood change in coastal Southeast Asia is the growing demand for luxury seafood in China. Based on fieldwork in the municipality of Balabac in Palawan province, western Philippines, this paper takes stock of this trend, and investigates the implications of the relationship between Chinese patterns of luxury seafood consumption and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia. The paper focuses mostly on the trade in live reef fish, with reference also to sea cucumber and shark fin. In the light of recent discussions of social and environmental change in Southeast Asia, the paper addresses how the intensification of coastal livelihoods has manifested in important trends, including an increasing reliance on high-value commodity fisheries such as the trade in luxury seafood. Important consequences of this intensification of coastal livelihoods include environmental degradation, and social change due to the development of broader trading networks. The paper argues that the live reef fish for food trade is an important contemporary livelihood that highlights the ways in which Chinese consumption is having diverse social and environmental consequences for source countries in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper to examine if there is continuous macroeconomic compatibility between ASEAN-5 and China. Thus, in addition to the typical VECM test of the long run macroeconomic cointegration test, this paper examines the existence of an ongoing cointegration analysis. Design/methodology/approach – The degree of convergence during different sub-sample period of the full sample is employed, via Johansen cointegration rank tests, to examine if there is evidence of ongoing and improved cointegrating relationship among the economies. Findings – A successful ASEAN-China economic cooperation would only work if there is continuous macroeconomic interdependence between the partnership. Since a smooth transition of ACFTA will complement AFTA, the effective ASEAN-China coordination plan is essential to endorse a successful ASEAN-China coalition. Originality/value – This paper suggests a quick yet effective verification on the continuous compatibility of economies intended to have a long-term economic coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how local Filipino volunteers frame their participation and membership in the Tzu Chi Foundation, a worldwide Buddhist philanthropic organisation headquartered in Taiwan. These volunteers were recruited into Tzu Chi after receiving disaster aid in the wake of Typhoon Ketsana in 2009 in the Philippines. They participate not just in philanthropic activities, but also in Buddhist religious instruction and rituals. We suggest, however, that the volunteers, who are mostly non-Chinese, urban poor, and Catholic, frame their participation in terms of personal transformation through self-discipline and self-fulfillment. These are facets that render their philanthropic participation in Tzu Chi not so much as religious as it is aspirational. In other words, participating in Tzu Chi for local Filipino volunteers is not about religion, but rather aspiration, in contrast to earlier studies that have emphasised Buddhist awareness as crucial to members of Tzu Chi. This piece contributes to the emerging literature that documents Tzu Chi as an increasingly inclusive organisation that downplays its traditionally Chinese diasporic character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, transnational Chinese investors from the Greater China region have been seeking natural and mineral resources in foreign countries. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich region in the Philippines where China's resource-led diplomacy was first launched in 2007. Although foreign Chinese mining companies have made inroads into mineral-rich local communities, they have also encountered resistance from non-state actors, causing their operations to be disrupted and suspended. The authors argue that the local reception of China's resource-led diplomacy can be attributed to two factors. First, in light of the debate on 'China's globalization versus South East Asian state sovereignty', the growing strength of the Philippine state in resisting transnational mining endeavours hinges on the democratic space constituted by both state and non-state actors, resulting from political decentralization and active social activism. Second, it shows that the transnational Chinese actors have an insufficient knowledge base, in which they privilege a top-down state-centric approach that reinforces the patrimonial rule of the Philippine politicians. The authors conclude, first, that such patrimonial rule is largely made possible through the provincial governor as the key agent connecting the national state authority, local government units, mining operators/ investors and the affected villagers. Second, local resistance to resource-led patrimonial rule hinges on the formation of Philippine democratic space. This space remains transient and unpredictable in nature, and so cannot be assimilated into the patrimonial character of the Philippine state. Such democratic struggle is like wind, thunder and lightning -- hard to chase, hard to catch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With respect to the major approaches of state-society relations and Chinese business networks in Southeast Asia, two knowledge gaps are identified. First, little is known about how two sets of dualistic conceptual entities may be connected in the often-contentious state formation process between: (1) the ruling minority and ruled majority; and (2) the nationalising state and grain-producing frontiers. Second, very little is known about the role that the Chinese business networks played and how they contributed to the state formation processes. Using a Philippine trans-local grain-trading network as a site of investigation, the paper seeks to fill these knowledge gaps by delineating an integrative approach – designated as rhizomatic political economy – which argues that Southeast Asian state formation may hinge on the instrumentalisation of Chinese business networks and what is identified as their rhizomatic power/knowledge system. They are not just business-brokers in the trans-local grain trade that connects the national capital and grain-producing locales, but also serve as political brokers to implement state measures in regards to food and interior security affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]