News

A new city is fast emerging on the China-Laos border, a manifestation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that if fully actualized will serve as Beijing’s new gateway to Southeast Asia. Once known for car smuggling and glitzy casinos catering to Chinese punters, the remote ...

Dozens of projects threaten agriculture and fishing in Southeast Asia. Sam In, a 48-year-old rice farmer from Cambodia’s northeastern province of Stung Treng, never knew that people paid for water until he was forced to move out of his home on the banks of a Mekong ...

Vietnam asks China, as a large nation in the region and the world, to perform its responsibility in maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea, stated Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang on May 8. Hang was in reply to reporters’ questions related to ...

China deserves credit for shutting down the illegal trading in elephant ivory that has contributed in recent years to the killing of thousands of African pachyderms. But much credit should also go to international nongovernment organizations that have championed the elephants’ cause and raised public ...

Although the Mekong is popularly seen as a South East Asian river, its headwaters are located in China, where it is known as the Lancang. From there it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The future of the Mekong, though, will be heavily ...

The White House has issued a warning to China over its increased military presence in the hotly contested South China Sea. “We’re well aware of China’s militarization of the South China Sea,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, adding that there would ...

Vietnam asked China to stop illegal activities in the areas around Vietnam’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes. Vietnam demanded China immediately end illegal activities in the areas around Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos, to respect the Southeast Asian country’s sovereignty over the archipelagoes ...

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde’s cautionary words (April 13) on the debt burden likely to be borne by the 70 countries destined to be part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative are to be welcomed. Beijing has proposed major “Silk Road” infrastructure developments linking China ...

China is offering $1.7 million to a six-country group along the Mekong River to boost regional trade and ease concerns about Beijing’s massive hydroelectric dam projects along the waterway. Keep reading ...

The Mekong River Commission met in Siem Reap province last week to discuss alternative energy solutions, large-scale Chinese investment, and governance issues. Keep reading ...