Malaysia has developed a reputation for hewing closely with the PRC on economic matters in recent years. Yet, it had been a big beneficiary of the de-risking and China plus One strategies undertaken by various companies from earlier rounds of the U.S.-PRC trade war by being able to tap on U.S. capital and access the U.S. market. Malaysia also ongoing territorial disputes with the PRC in the South China Sea and concerns about growing PRC domestic political influence. How does Malaysia seek to adjust among these concerns in an increasingly contested environment characterized?

Join host Ian Chong as he explores these issues with two experts from Malaysia. Khoo Ying Hooi is Associate Professor of International Relations at Universiti Malaya, with research expertise in human rights, democratization, and civil society in Southeast Asia. She engages in regional and international collaborations that connect academic research with policy and advocacy, and contributes to dialogues on rights and Southeast Asia’s role in broader global shifts. Shahriman Lockman is Director (Special Projects) at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia. His research includes Malaysian foreign and defense policies, Southeast Asian maritime security affairs, Malaysia-China relations, and South China Sea issues. He manages ISIS Malaysia’s China Engagement Initiative, which promotes Malaysia-China Track-Two dialogues.

Vietnam has long had to carefully calibrate its relationship with, China, its giant neighbor to the north. The two sides have a history of cultural and economic exchange as well as invasion and occupation going back to antiquity. Today, the People’s Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have similar political systems and successful economies. Hanoi nonetheless seeks to break out of a dependency relationship with Beijing, maintain its territorial claims, and assert its autonomy even as it looks to deepen economic cooperation. 

Joining Carnegie China non-resident scholar Ian Chong to discuss these issues are Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group and Chair of Australia-Vietnam Policy Institute Advisory Board, and Nguyễn Khác Giang is visiting scholar with the Vietnam Studies Programme at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies - Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and previously head of the Political Research Unit at the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research in Hanoi.

In this episode, Ian Chong, a nonresident scholar with Carnegie China, discusses how Japan seeks to navigate its complex economic and security ties with the People’s Republic of China. Japan’s economy has become deeply integrated with that of the PRC over decades of globalization and cooperation remains important, but mounting concerns about coercion, pressure, and tension over regional territorial disputes are currently driving a more cautious Japanese approach.

Joining Ian are two specialists on Japan. Akira Igata is a project lecturer at the Economic Security Intelligence Lab, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. Ayumi Teraoka is a fellow with the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program and an incoming assistant professor at the Brandeis University.

What are China’s interests in Myanmar? In this episode, Dr. Ian Chong speaks with Dr. Moe Thuzar and Dr. Shona Loong on the role China is playing in the ongoing civil war in Myanmar. They also discuss how Beijing relates to the interested parties inside and outside of Myanmar, and the cyber crime industry that has significant implications on China-Myanmar relations.

Dr. Ian Chong is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He is also an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Moe Thuzar is a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute where she coordinates the Myanmar Studies Program.

Dr. Shona Loong is a senior scientist in political geography at the University of Zurich, and associate fellow with the Southeast Asian Politics and Foreign Policy program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

What role has China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) played in Southeast Asia so far? In this episode, Dr. Ian Chong holds an in-depth dialogue with Dr. Ngeow Chow Bing, another nonresident scholar at Carnegie China; and Muhammad Habib, a researcher at the Department of International Relations, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. The three scholars discuss how the BRI has affected perceptions of China in Southeast Asia and the China-Southeast Asia relations.

Dr. Ian Chong is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He is also an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Ngeow Chow Bing is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China. He focuses on China's relations with Southeast Asian countries.

Muhammad Habib is a researcher at the Department of International Relations, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia. His main research areas include international political economy, Indonesia-U.S. bilateral relations, and Indonesia-China bilateral relations.

What is the landscape of misinformation and disinformation in Southeast Asia, especially regarding the campaigns involving China? In this episode, Dr. Ian Chong hosts a conversation with Sutawan Chanprasert, founder of DigitalReach, and Ibrahim Suffian, director of Merdeka Center, on the disinformation campaigns observed in Southeast Asia, and how to address it.

Dr. Ian Chong is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He is also an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Sutawan Chanprasert is a founder of the Bangkok-based organization DigitalReach, which explores the impact of technology on human rights in Southeast Asia.

Ibrahim Suffian is the director of Merdeka Center, a public opinion polling and political surveys organization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In this episode of the China in the World podcast, Dr. Ian Chong speaks with Dr. Ratih Kabinawa, adjunct research fellow at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, and Julio S. Amador III, executive director of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation, on Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The three scholars discuss how tensions over the Taiwan Strait affect Southeast Asia, and how the regional states and ASEAN look at the current dynamics.

Dr. Ian Chong is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. He is also an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Ratih Kabinawa is an adjunct research fellow at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. She is a recipient of the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2024 Fellowship. Her research interests include transnational democracy, Taiwan’s international relations, Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, and foreign policy of non-state actors. She is currently working on her first monograph on Taiwan’s use of informal diplomacy in Southeast Asia.

Julio S. Amador III is the executive director of the Philippine-American Educational Foundation, the interim president of the Foundation for the National Interest, and founder and trustee of the non-profit FACTS Asia. He previously worked in the Office of the President of the Philippines and served as deputy director-general of the Foreign Service Institute. He was a Fulbright scholar and was with the East-West Center in Washington.

China in the World is back with a special series of five episodes focusing on Southeast Asian perspectives on China.

In the first episode, Ian Chong, a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, discusses the South China Sea with Charmaine Willoughby, also a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China who focuses on alliances, maritime security, and security cooperation; and Chanintira "Neen" na Thalang, an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, whose research interests include Thai foreign policy, ethnic conflicts and regional security in Southeast Asia. The three scholars share their insights on the role China is playing in the South China Sea, and the wider implications of the ongoing disputes and their trajectories for Southeast Asia and beyond.

In this episode of the China in the World podcast, Paul Haenle speaks with Dr. Ian Chong, non-resident scholar at Carnegie China and Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. The two experts discuss President Biden and Xi's upcoming meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Leaders' Meeting in San Francisco. The two also discuss the current state of U.S.-China relations and how the two powers are viewed from Southeast Asia as well as Dr. Chong's recent article published by Carnegie China, "Amid Contending Narratives, A Read on U.S. and PRC Messaging in Singapore." https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/11/08/amid-contending-narratives-read-on-u.s.-and-prc-messaging-in-singapore-pub-90942

Dr. Chong is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie China, where he examines U.S.-China dynamics in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific. Chong is also an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 2008 and previously taught at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research covers the intersection of international and domestic politics, with a focus on the externalities of major power competition, nationalism, regional order, security, contentious politics, and state formation. He also works on U.S.-China relations, security and order in Northeast and Southeast Asia, cross-strait relations, and Taiwan’s politics.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the China in the World podcast, Carnegie China is launching a series of lookback episodes, using audio clips from previous interviews to put current international issues in context. For the fifth and final episode in this series, the podcast looks back on 10 years of US-China trade relations. 

US-China trade ties have undergone significant changes since the launch of the China in the World podcast. In March 2012, the United States, the EU, and Japan filed a dispute at the World Trade Organization over China’s quota on exporting rare earth metals. That same year, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. reached an all-time high of $315 billion. In 2015, China became the largest bilateral trade partner of the U.S., surpassing Canada for the first time. In March 2018, the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, kicking off the U.S.-China trade war. After bilateral negotiations with Beijing broke down in May 2019, the Trump administration raised tariffs from 10 to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Finally, in January 2020, the “Phase one” trade deal was signed, relaxing some U.S. tariffs and requiring China to import an additional $200 billion worth of American goods for the next two years. After coming to office in January 2021, the Biden administration maintained the Section 301 tariffs on China and, at the end of 2021, U.S. officials stated that China failed to meet its commitments under the Phase 1 trade deal. In 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo travelled to China and agreed to establish working groups on commercial and financial issues. However, negotiations over structural economic issues such as subsidies, investment restrictions, and non-tariff barriers remain at a standstill. This episode helps shed light on the evolution of U.S.-China trade relations over the past 10 years.