In this third episode of Dragon Road, Arif Rafiq speaks to Elina Noor about the emerging China-US rivalry in the digital space.

China has transformed itself from an exporter of cheap manufactured goods to a leading player in the technology space, like from artificial intelligence, to blockchain, and from 5G to e-commerce. China’s emergence has caused great anxiety in the West, especially in Washington DC, due to suspicions about China-backed enterprises like Huawei and ZTE providing a backdoor to the Chinese government to spy on Western citizens.

In this episode of Dragon Road with Ms. Noor, we discuss the impact of this rising rivalry in Southeast Asia, or the ASEAN region. Ms. Noor argues that ASEAN countries are used to being in the center of great power rivalry, hence there is no panic among them. She recommends that Western nations need to recognize the agency of the locals in the region to better compete with China.