Commentaries

Amid shortages and price spikes, drivers line up for fuel in Yangon, Myanmar, on Aug. 12, 2022.

The Myanmar military’s real weak spot: economic ineptitude

The junta’s gross mismanagement makes it even more unpopular amid currency, trade and banking chaos.

A Mytel tower is destroyed in Sagaing region’s Butalin township, Sept. 7, 2021.

In Myanmar, Vietnamese firms learn the political risks of backing the junta

This screen grab from a video by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on August 4, 2022 made available on the Eurovision Social Newswire (ESN) platform via AFPTV shows a missile being fired during a Chinese military exercise in China on August 4, 2022.

China isn't yet ready to use military force against Taiwan

A municipal electricity company worker inspects an electrical pole with two propaganda loudspeakers on it, in downtown Hanoi on Feb. 29, 2016.

Play it loud: The return of Hanoi’s loudspeakers speaks volumes

2022-08-07

The National Unity Government and affiliated ethnic resistance organizations now claim to control roughly 50 percent of Myanmar. Here, members of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force and Karenni Army man at a checkpoint near Demoso, in Myanmar's eastern Kayah state, Oct. 19, 2021.

Execution of democracy icons shows Myanmar junta is desperate to exert control

2022-07-25

Protesters break down the gate as they storm the compound of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, demanding he resign after president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 13, 2022.

Did China's Belt and Road Initiative destroy Sri Lanka?

2022-07-18

A worker inspects semiconductor chips at the Unisem (M) Berhad plant in Ipoh, Malaysia, Oct. 15, 2021.

Will Southeast Asia support Russia’s war with semiconductor exports?

2022-07-08

Members of the Lithuanian community in Taiwan celebrate their country's Independence Day at a gathering in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 12, 2022.

Lithuania’s courtship of Taiwan rubs China the wrong way

2022-06-10

A student between the age of 12 to 17 receives a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Hanoi, Nov. 23, 2021.

COVID test scandal topples two Vietnam Communist Party high officials

2022-06-07

Workers wearing protective gear stack up boxes with food over a cart to deliver in a neighborhood during a Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in the Jing'an district in Shanghai, May 7, 2022.

A reporter looks back: Better times in Shanghai

2022-05-09

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