Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: November 1, 2015 Edition

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited China on October 29 and 30, marking her eighth visit to the country since she assumed office in 2005. Ostensibly, her trip was aimed at deepening the economic ties between China and Germany, but security and strategic issues – from the Syria crisis to the South China Sea – also featured on the agenda.

Germany has been concerned about China’s economic slowdown, and for good reason – last year, China was Germany’s fourth biggest export market, representing nine percent of total German exports, according toReuters. Ironically, Germany’s robust exports to China (something other countries have envied as they eye their trade deficits with Beijing) are now a headache for Berlin, as total trade between China and Germanyplummeted nearly 12 percent in the first six months of 2015. Meanwhile, there’s some nervousness in Berlin that the United Kingdom, with its avowed wish to be China’s “best partner in the West” could siphon off some of China’s economic largess.

The year 1965 is politically significant in several Southeast Asian countries: Singapore became an independent nation, Ferdinand Marcos was elected president of the Philippines, and an anti-communist purge killed at least half a million people in Indonesia.

Singapore separated from the Malaysian Federation and subsequently, an independent government was established led by Lee Kuan Yew. Singapore under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew became one of the most vibrant economies in the world. Its transformation from a small Third World city state into a prosperous nation with high living standards is one of the memorable development stories of the past century.

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) announced Northrup Grumman as the winner of a competition to develop its new top-secret Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), according to the USAF website.

“The LRS-B is critical to national defense and is a top priority for the Air Force,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. “We face a complex security environment. It’s imperative our Air Force invests in the right people, technology, capability and training to defend the nation and its interests – at an affordable cost.”

The LRS-B will “allow the Air Force to operate in tomorrow’s high-end threat environment,” she added. Elaborating on the selection process, James emphasized that it was conducted “with a high level of transparency with our industrial partners… we believe our decision represents the best value for our nation.”

From October 25 to 28, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indonesia – the world’s fourth largest nation, third-largest democracy, and largest Muslim-majority country – will visit the United States for the first time since his inauguration last year. What can we expect in U.S.-Indonesia relations during his trip?

Sources close to preparations for the visit told The Diplomat that the focus will be on strengthening the structural foundation of the existing U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership; deepening defense and economic cooperation; and shaping the narrative of Indonesia in the United States.

The haze from land-clearing fires blanketing Sumatra, Kalimantan and peninsular Southeast Asia for the past two months has now extended to Papua, with the blame falling on an agriculture development project aimed at turning the easternmost district of Merauke into an unlikely food bowl.

President Joko Widodo has ordered a nation-wide moratorium on peatland cultivation as the burning season drags on, exacerbated by what may be strongest drought-inducing El Nino weather phenomena in 18 years that threatens failed crops and higher food prices.

On Thursday, October 29, the Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded its first decision in the The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China. The court ruled that the case was “properly constituted” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, that China’s “non-appearance” (i.e., refusal to participate) did not preclude the Court’s jurisdiction, and that the Philippines was within its rights in filing the case. In short, Thursday’s decision means that the Permanent Court of Arbitration rules in the Philippines’ favor on the question of jurisdiction. With the jurisdictional issue resolved, the case can move forward to evaluating the merits of the Philippines’ legal assertions in the South China Sea.

By now, most Diplomat readers probably know that China has officially ended its one-child policy, in a decision announced after the fifth plenum in Beijing (see the other main takeaways from that meeting here). Couples will now be allowed to have two children, ending an over three decade-old policy that restricted families to having one child. The decision was made to “to balance population development and address the challenge of an aging population,” according to Xinhua.

The change is big news from a political messaging standpoint – China’s government has been slow to move away from the one-child policy, despite experts from China and abroad predicting a demographic crisis. Part of the problem was that the policy was so lucrative: Beijing has said the government collects around $3 billion a year in related fees, though that figure may actually be a conservative estimate. An independent analysis from a Chinese lawyer found that in 2013, 23 of China’s 31 provinces raked in $3.1 billion in fines.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to be the latest high-profile visitor making the rounds in Central Asia later this week. Kerry will touch down in Bishkek on Thursday, after a stop Wednesday in Vienna for talks on the ongoing Syrian crisis. Visits to Samarkand, Astana, Dushanbe, and Ashgabat fill out the remainder of the trip, ending on November 3.

Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, had completed the first in a series of planned freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. The operation is the strongest assertion yet by the U.S. Navy that it rejects any maritime claims for Chinese features that were submerged at low-tide in their original, pre-land reclamation state.

The FONOP does not, as some reporting has suggested, directly challenge or contest the sovereignty of specific maritime features in the South China Sea. The United States continues to take no position on the actual sovereignty of various disputed maritime features in the South China Sea.

On Monday, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the moment magnitude scale struck the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhstan, near the remote Hindu Kush mountain range that runs between Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to theAssociated Press, as of early Tuesday morning, at least 263 people are confirmed to have been killed while hundreds more have been injured. The earthquake is the second major quake to strike the Himalayanregion this year after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated Nepal in April.