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This Week in Asia /

Opinion

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The Benjakitti Forest Park’s woodlands and wetlands serve as sponges to mitigate flooding. Photo: Donald Low
Thailand

Asian Angle | Bangkok branches out: how Thai capital moved from concrete to real jungle

Bangkok’s urban greenery playbook contains lessons that other cities, including Hong Kong, should pay attention to.

2025 Cambodia-Thailand conflict

Asian Angle | Cambodia and Thailand must define the border to achieve lasting peace

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Artificial intelligence

Opinion | America and China can be allies against AI catastrophe

Asean

Asian Angle | Decades of talk, zero barrels stored: why can’t Asean stockpile oil?

The Iran war energy crisis revived Asean’s joint reserve plans. To avoid another shelved ambition, the bloc needs swift, binding action.

Southeast Asia is projected to account for one-fifth of global energy demand growth through 2035. Photo: Reuters
Southeast Asia is projected to account for one-fifth of global energy demand growth through 2035. Photo: Reuters
Malaysia

Asian Angle | Southeast Asia must embrace reforms for ‘China plus one’ to succeed

The region needs to build strong institutions, pursue industrial policies that allow local firms to compete and upgrade its supply chains.

Cambodia

Asian Angle | Cambodia’s war on scammers needs a blueprint built to last

Rounding up foot soldiers is easy. The hard part is tracing cash, exposing high-level enablers and protecting coerced victims.

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Vietnam

Asian Angle | Vietnam’s economic miracle has a made-elsewhere problem

The numbers dazzle, but Vietnamese companies are losing ground in their own export boom as the middle-income trap looms.

A Vietnamese scrap collector walks past a Chinese-language sign in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam. Photo: AFP
A Vietnamese scrap collector walks past a Chinese-language sign in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam. Photo: AFP
Asean

Opinion | Southeast Asia must write its own trade rules for China’s ‘flying geese’

As Chinese manufacturers migrate south, Asean has the leverage to dictate terms on local sourcing and skills training.

China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | Why a second ‘China shock’ is good for Southeast Asia

Fear of Chinese imports is misplaced. Roughly 90 per cent of what the region buys is inputs and machinery driving local manufacturing.

Pacific nations

Opinion | Panic over China’s missile test is born of Western bias

Every nuclear power routinely tests its arsenal. The outcry over Beijing’s launch reveals a glaring double standard.

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A long-range ballistic missile bursts out of the sea during a test launched from a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine in the South Pacific on Monday. Photo: Xinhua/AP
US, Israel war on Iran

Opinion | Oman and China: the real winners of Trump’s Iran deal?

Behind the triumphalism, an eerily familiar agreement hands Muscat a privileged position that Beijing hasn’t missed.

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US President Donald Trump gesticulates during an event in the White House on June 22. Photo: Getty Images/TNS
US President Donald Trump gesticulates during an event in the White House on June 22. Photo: Getty Images/TNS
Singapore

Asian Angle | Singapore’s trade pacts prove small states can shape global rules

While major powers employ coercion, Singapore is using flexible, legally binding templates to keep trade open.

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Indonesia

Asian Angle | Liberal Islam in Indonesia is sliding into irrelevance

Political entanglements and ideological schisms have left the pioneering Liberal Islam Network in disarray.

Asean

Asian Angle | Asean’s side deals in Myanmar risk missing where the power truly lies

Trading collective leverage for isolated bargains blinds the bloc to changing realities on the ground.

Myanmar’s Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs U Hau Khan Sum (left) with other Southeast Asian leaders at the Asean summit in Cebu, the Philippines, on May 8. Photo: Pool via Reuters
South Korea

Asian Angle | Korean drama Teach You a Lesson serves up a reality check on education

The hit Netflix series uses a vigilante classroom fantasy to expose deep, real-world anxieties about school violence.

Kim Mu-yeol stars as Na Hwa-jin in “Teach You a Lesson”, the K-drama making waves across Asia. Photo: Handout
Kim Mu-yeol stars as Na Hwa-jin in “Teach You a Lesson”, the K-drama making waves across Asia. Photo: Handout
Vietnam

Asian Angle | When the US comes for Cuba, what can Vietnam do?

Vietnam has stood by Cuba for 60 years. Now Washington is raising the price of that friendship – and Hanoi must decide what it’s worth.

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Asean

Asian Angle | China builds Southeast Asia expertise as the US lets it wither

Yet neither power will truly grasp this complex, diverse region if they continue to treat it merely as a geopolitical chessboard.

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Indonesia

Asian Angle | Indonesia’s nickel rule changes are spooking Chinese investors

A leaked grievance letter reveals how Jakarta’s resource nationalism risks driving essential Chinese capital away.

A worker processes nickel at plant in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: EPA
A worker processes nickel at plant in Sorowako, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo: EPA
Indonesia

Opinion | Indonesia’s labour movement is deeply divided over political patronage

Rival rallies reveal a fundamental clash between a co-opted union elite and an independent grass-roots movement.

Malaysia

Opinion | Can Malaysia’s unity government survive a state poll fight?

Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional might find it easier to compete locally and maintain a lukewarm federal alliance.

Asean

Asian Angle | Where Southeast Asians really want to live, work and travel

While Thailand leads for tourism, Singapore and Japan are the top draws for work, revealing uneven regional soft power dynamics.

People at the Merlion statue in Singapore. The city state has emerged top among Southeast Asians who chose an Asean member as their preferred relocation destination, according to a survey. Photo: AFP
Malaysia

Asian Angle | Malaysia’s 3R catch-all risks turning every grievance into a threat

Conflating local governance concerns with racial and religious slights threatens pluralism and stifles legitimate public policy debate.

Thousands of protesters rally near a mosque in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the Malaysian government’s withdrawal of plans to ratify a UN anti-discrimination convention in 2018. Photo: AP
Thousands of protesters rally near a mosque in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the Malaysian government’s withdrawal of plans to ratify a UN anti-discrimination convention in 2018. Photo: AP
Ageing society

Asian Angle | Asia’s silver dividend can offset ageing’s economic toll

Research shows demographic decline hits productivity, not workforce size. Keeping older workers active through technology is the solution.

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US-China relations

Asian Angle | What the China-US stability pact means for Southeast Asia

The real test of Beijing and Washington’s adoption of ‘constructive strategic stability’ will be how words translate into action.

China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | China offers Southeast Asia clear advantages in nuclear power

With its experience in exporting nuclear reactors, China can offer long-term energy security and technological upgrades.

Researchers inspect an alloy material sample used to build a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor at a laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics in October last year. Photo: EPA
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