ARTICLES

25 Dec 2024

2024 Top 10

China’s Overcapacity and Southeast Asian Economies: A Blessing Despite Concerns

Maria Monica Wihardja|Sherry Tao Kong

China’s purported industrial overcapacity is a double-edged sword for Southeast Asian economies.

25 Dec 2024

2024 Top 10

The Philippines and West Philippine Sea: Bringing Deterrence Into the Picture

Maria Gabriela Alano|Deryk Baladjay

The Philippines needs to start investing in a credible deterrence strategy if it wants to secure its interests in the West Philippine Sea.

2024 Top 10 China China-Philippine Relations Philippines South China Sea

20 Dec 2024

China’s Pop Fiction Boom Poses a Dilemma for the Party

Kornphanat Tungkeunkunt

The export of Chinese pop fiction has found ready markets in Southeast Asia such as Thailand. But some undesirable genres pose a dilemma for China’s soft power.

Arts and Culture China China-Southeast Asia relations

17 Dec 2024

Fan Bingbing: Tourism Ambassadorship and China’s Soft Power

Peter T. C. Chang

China’s soft power comes in various guises. Fan Bingbing’s appointment as Melaka’s tourism ambassador represents a new, private-sector driven form that will likely grow.

China China-Malaysia Relations Malaysia Tourism

13 Dec 2024

Thailand and the Chinese Import Surge: Possible Policy Responses

Archanun Kohpaiboon|Prasert Vijithnopparat

Apart from tariffs and import bans, there are more reasonable options to address the surge of Chinese imports into Thailand.

China Thai Economy Thailand Trade

9 Dec 2024

Amidst Malaysia’s Rising Polarisation: What More Mandarin-speaking Non-Chinese Malaysians Show

James Chai

More non-Chinese Malaysians are enrolling their children in Chinese vernacular primary schools, and Malaysia’s job market increasingly favours Mandarin speakers as China’s power grows. How might this impact Malaysia’s inter-ethnic relations?

China China-Malaysia Relations Malaysia Race Relations

28 Nov 2024

Re-ordering the World: China’s Global South Focus versus the Ally-centric Approach of the US

Hoang Thi Ha|Pham Thi Phuong Thao

Institutional balancing has become a key strategy in US-China strategic competition, with both powers taking different approaches in leveraging their institutional networks to advance their strategic agenda. Southeast Asian countries have straddled both institutional realms advocated respectively by China and the US, while continuing to leverage ASEAN-led mechanisms to advance their interests.

China Security US

22 Nov 2024

Prabowo’s Overtures to China and Ramifications on the South China Sea Dispute

Ian Storey

In one sentence, Jakarta appears to have undermined its long-standing position in the South China Sea.

China Indonesia South China Sea

19 Nov 2024

Black Myth: Wukong — When a Chinese Icon Skips National Borders

Xue Song

The success of a Chinese role-playing game featuring a famous cultural icon from China has made headway in Indonesia, highlighting how these symbols can resonate internationally.

China China-Indonesia Relations Indonesia

18 Nov 2024

Has China Changed its Policy Towards Chinese Overseas?

Leo Suryadinata

In 2024, senior Chinese diplomat Liu Jianchao made a clear distinction between Huaqiao and Huaren, emphasising that they possess different political loyalties. Huaren’s political loyalty, he noted, is tied only to the country of citizenship. In substance, however, Beijing’s policy of blurring the distinction between Huaqiao and Huaren remains unchanged.

China Ethnic Immigration Southeast Asia