South East Asia

As their strategic rivalry grows, China and the U.S. are increasingly operating in close proximity in the Asia Pacific. An accident or misinterpreted signal could set off a wider confrontation. The danger level is low, but dialogue is needed to dial it down further.

What’s new? The risk of an unintended collision between U.S. and Chinese ships or planes has grown as the two sides expand military activities in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Heightened political tensions increase the escalatory potential for such an incident and make crisis management more difficult.

China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.” In it, the authors “suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic warfare, attacks on digital infrastructure and networks, and terrorism. Even a relatively insignificant state can incapacitate a far more powerful enemy by applying pressure to their economic and political systems.” Ideally, “one might not even know that one is the target.”

The Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission, and four other government departments, citing a budget crisis. The cuts were announced on Monday, days after the Taliban announced their first annual national budget.

President Joe Biden on Friday announced he’s nominating one of his top national security aides as ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aiming to underscore his administration’s commitment to the Pacific region.

Recently, the central government of China has issued a new policy on the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Large Unified National Market (hereafter referred to as ‘Opinions’)”. The Opinions propose to speed up the establishment of a large unified national system as well as rules to promote smooth domestic demand. The capital market is very concerned with the creation of an “efficient market” and an “effective government”, particularly on how the “unified”, “efficient” and “effective” are defined and executed. There are different understandings and views on various aspects in this regard. As part of the national unified market, the capital market is generally confused about the future direction and possible trends. To ANBOUND researchers, this raises the question of balancing between an “efficient market” and “effective government” to form a unified capital market structure.

China’s economic growth targets and macroeconomic policies formulated at its annual parliamentary meetings the “Two Sessions” face the challenge of policy adjustment in just one month later.