Taylor Swift Shows Why Asia Should ‘Shake It Off’ As ‘Sparks Fly’

China’s deflation is intensifying. Japan has fallen into recession again. North Korea appears to be preparing for some kind of war. The current and former leaders of the Philippines are fighting. Thailand’s economy is contracting. Indonesia’s new president worries some global investors. And yet, everyone in Asia seems to be talking about Taylor Swift.

While the pop music sensation works through her six-concert residency in Singapore, the Southeast Asian leaders are acting like a group of MCs engaged in the geopolitical equivalent of a rap battle. And in ways that tell a broader (and off-key) story of what’s wrong in the world’s most promising economic regions.

The source of this bad blood, of course, is that Singapore got a exclusive arrangement with Swift to limit the Southeast Asia leg of his wildly lucrative Eras Tour to the city-state. That deprives rabid fans in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and elsewhere from seeing Swift perform locally. The “swifts” are forced to travel to Singapore, which benefits from transportation, hotel reservations, spending in restaurants, bars, shopping arcades, you name it.

Philippine lawmaker Joey Salceda led the charge of questioning the adequacy of the Singapore agreement. Saying that “is not what good neighbors do.Thailand’s new prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, had also studied the agreement and pledged to offer tax incentives and other sweeteners to ensure their nation becomes a regional hub for mega concerts.

Fair enough, until the rancor spills over to a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders.

It is true that the ASEAN-Australia “special summit” held March 4-6 in Melbourne was not your typical 10-nation meeting. Especially since Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong found himself facing Swift Related Questions.

“A deal was reached and it turned out to be a very successful deal,” Lee said. “If we had not made such an arrangement, would she have come to another place in Southeast Asia or to more places in Southeast Asia? Maybe, maybe not.”

Or would Swift have bothered to play in Southeast Asia? Hong Kong is still bitter about not being able to perform there last month before or after her shows in Tokyo.

It was a difficult January and February for Hong Kong, which began the process of enacting a controversial national security law that many fear will go further to remake the city in Beijing’s image.

However, the only thing most Hongkongers seemed to be able to talk about was their anger at football’s greats. Lionel Messi remaining on the bench while his team, Inter Miami, played an exhibition match there. And of course, Swift passed up Hong Kong while she and Messi played in neighboring Japan.

Before we continue, can Singapore really be blamed for a smart business decision? The rest of ASEAN simply failed to stay out of it.

And yet, ASEAN’s inability to, well, “get over it” as “Sparks fly” as Taylor sings on two of her most popular songs, about the Singaporean financial duo with a pop superstar tells a bigger story.

It’s a reminder that for all the talk of ASEAN brotherhood (and sisterhood), Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam too often compete more than they think. They cooperate.

And that’s depressing given the magnitude of the challenges that make 2024 for the region a wild card on too many levels.

Let’s start with China’s failure at the National People’s Congress in Beijing this week. Xi’s team already has to defend its 5% growth target by 2024 as plausible, especially since it offered very few policies to achieve it. Meanwhile, China’s real estate sector is collapsing, deflation is becoming more entrenched, and youth unemployment is at record levels.

In Japan, the Bank of Japan is contemplating an end to more than 24 years of zero interest rates as the economy contracts. Germany stumbles forward, reminding Asia that Europe is not much help as a destination for manufactured goods. In the United States, the multiple Federal Reserve rate cuts that everyone was so sure about are on hold.

No matter how the run-up to the US elections on November 5 may test ASEAN economies. President Joe Biden’s efforts to limit China’s access to semiconductors and other vital technologies are one thing. Donald Trump’s threats to impose a 60% tax on all Chinese goods are altogether more dangerous for Asian exporters.

Former President Trump, who is running for the Republican nomination, is also proposing a blanket 10% tariff on all goods entering the U.S. Add to this the ways China could retaliate, and it’s not hard to see how the Southeast Asia could soon find itself trampled. by competing economic giants.

The thing is, ASEAN has always been a strange beast. It combines democrats, communists, military governments and a sultanate that aims to speak with a common voice. In reality, it is the most dysfunctional that families can be. ASEAN summits tend to be disappointingly unproductive, even when officials are not arguing about Taylor Swift.

Leaders meet, agree closely on the few things they can, play nice on camera, craft vaguely worded statements, promise to pursue a shared future for 660 million people, and then fly home to do their thing. .

To make ASEAN more than background music, the bloc could create a true free trade area. It could go further to harmonize customs, regulatory and tax systems, curb limits on migration, clamp down on money laundering and, where appropriate, share security intelligence. Why not come up with ways to link the bond, stock and currency markets? The pooling of some foreign exchange reserves could act as an economic buffer.

The dispute between Swift and Singapore is not responsible for the ASEAN rancor in Melbourne. But it does highlight “Blank Space,” to riff on another favorite Swift song, which too often seems to signify the group’s lack of achievement in a chaotic global climate.

ASEAN can do better. But back to Swift, the mindset should be more “You belong to me” than “We’re never getting back together.”