China
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The China-Thailand Crackdown on Myanmar’s Scam Hubs: A Long-Overdue Reckoning or Another Short-Lived Fix?
The sprawling networks of scam operations in Myanmar’s border regions, particularly in Shwe Kokko and Myawaddy, have long been an open secret. These illicit compounds, operated primarily by Chinese criminal syndicates, have trafficked tens of thousands of individuals, coercing them into fraudulent online schemes that have siphoned billions of dollars…
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The US Aid Freeze: A Strategic Blunder That Strengthens China’s Hand in Southeast Asia
On January 20th 2025, President Trump signed an executive order initiating a 90-day suspension of US foreign development assistance programs to reassess their alignment with American interests. This was soon after accompanied by the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the government agency responsible for foreign…
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How China’s EV makers left incumbent automakers in the dust: A story of specialization
In the rapidly evolving landscape of global automotive manufacturing, China’s electric vehicle (EV) sector has emerged as a testament to the power of specialized industrial organization. While traditional automakers in Germany and Japan struggle with declining market share, Chinese EV manufacturers have achieved remarkable success through a model of focused…
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Reflecting on China’s One: Child Policy 45 Years Later
Born out of a legacy of extensive state planning, China’s one-child policy is regarded as the strictest family planning program in modern history. Formulated as an emergency measure to increase per capita living standards at its inception, the experiences of comparative countries provide strong evidence that the policy provided limited…
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SEATO: The Tantalizing Promise of Nato’s Forgotten Counterpart in the Indo-Pacific
The past failures of SEATO highlight the challenges of forming regional alliances in Southeast Asia and demonstrate that economic cooperation are more viable than security partnerships like NATO. With a Trump 2.0 administration increasingly focusing on China and Southeast Asia in 2025, a look at the regional alliance structure of…
Sino-Southeast Initiative 