As the world is grappling with the shocks of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Mongolia finds itself reflecting on the implications of a second Trump presidency – not as an abstract geopolitical puzzle but as a small democracy navigating life between two resurgent authoritarian powers. Trump’s first presidencyContinue Reading
“We’re not the government of the world,” Marco Rubio told a BBC reporter at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on April 4. The U.S. Secretary of State defended a modest $2 million contribution for Myanmar, recovering from a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 3,500 people. The State Department later softenedContinue Reading
A day before U.S. President Donald Trump’s harsh “reciprocal tariffs” are set to come into effect, Southeast Asia’s major economies continue to reel from the globe-shaking announcement, as their governments hastily cobble together a response. Stock markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines tumbled when trading opened yesterday, afterContinue Reading
In a year that the United States and Vietnam will celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic normalization, U.S. President Donald Trump poured cold water on the relationship by slapping a 46 percent “reciprocal tariff” on Vietnamese exports to the United States. The imposition of tariffs came after many Vietnamese effortsContinue Reading
Southeast Asian nations are scrambling to respond to the sweeping tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, expressing hopes for bilateral negotiations but also expressing their desire to reduce their reliance on the U.S. market. Yesterday, Asia woke to the spectacle of Trump, sitting in the Rose Garden of theContinue Reading
Southeast Asian nations have been hit hard by the sweeping reciprocal tariffs announced by the Trump administration on Wednesday, which threaten to damage the region’s manufacturing industries and undermine U.S. influence in the region. The stunning array of tariffs, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House lateContinue Reading
China’s leader Xi Jinping will reportedly embark on a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia later this month, a possible sign that China is seeking to capitalize on the current regional unease about the direction of U.S. policy in the region. On Monday, the South China Morning Post, citing unnamed diplomaticContinue Reading
On the night of Friday, March 14, at the end of another week during which Radio Free Asia (RFA) journalists provided rare reporting on the Myanmar civil war, North Korea’s alliance with Russia, political prisoners in Vietnam, and China’s persistent human right violations against Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, and ChineseContinue Reading
I’m standing before enough heavy weaponry to level a football stadium. The bombs are arranged on a raised concrete platform behind a building site. They sit, sunbaked and rusting, in informal rows amid a scattering of mines, mortar shells, and beer bottles. Each looks menacing, from the hulking cigar-shaped canistersContinue Reading
