The Asia Cable

11/08/2025

China and Qatar are calling their ties a “golden era,” but this gold is polished LNG contracts, not grand strategy.

Alex Gintz examines the decades-long gas deals, a modest stake in China’s asset sector, and careful political distance, which keep the relationship steady, predictable, and useful — exactly how both sides want it.

Qatar's peculiar position in Gulf affairs keeps China ties practical rather than strategic.

06/08/2025

ICYMI: North Korea has sent 12 million munitions and thousands of troops to Russia, becoming an indispensable part of Moscow’s war effort. Drake Tien writes that this growing dependence could reshape U.S. and allied strategy.

Read more: https://www.theasiacable.com/p/the-changing-dynamic-of-russo-dprk

01/08/2025

Despite perpetually tense relations, outright hostility between Iran and Pakistan has been rare. Sapna Suresh examines the state of relations between the two Islamic Republics and the "cold peace" that has constrained the deep mistrust between them.

Bound by geography and divided by history, the two Islamic Republics remain uneasy neighbors.

30/07/2025

China has confirmed its Fourth Plenum for October — but the agenda breaks with tradition.

Instead of focusing on Party reform or governance, this plenum will center on the 15th Five-Year Plan. That shift sends a clear message: the CPC now views economic stabilization as its top domestic priority. Alex Gintz examines what this change in focus signals about the Party’s internal calculus and how renewed attention to growth planning reflects deep economic concern among CPC leadership.

With weak household demand and strained local finances, China’s long-term growth strategy faces mounting structural pressure ahead of the 15th Five-Year Plan.

30/07/2025

Thaksin’s house of cards is collapsing, and his dynasty might go with it.

Nattan Plewissara breaks down the unraveling of Thailand’s 🇹🇭 most controversial political comeback. From exile to influence, and now to legal trouble, the Shinawatra family may be facing its most precarious moment yet.

His house of cards is trembling and his dynasty may not survive the fall.

26/07/2025

After tensions between Thailand and Cambodia boiled over along their shared border, both countries have adopted increasingly assertive postures as small-scale conflict broke out on July 24.

Nattan Plewissara runs through the conflict's course so far ⬇️

Both countries have blamed the other for the conflict's escalation as tensions continue to rise along their shared border.

16/07/2025

Resistance in Afghanistan persists, but barely.
As James Calderon writes, groups like the NRF and AFF are active, but fragmented and unsupported.

The Taliban’s biggest threat? Collapse from within.

Armed resistance to the Taliban continues, but its impact remains limited.

09/07/2025

Beijing says it wants more consumer-led growth. But the system still rewards overcapacity, investment, and control.

Until China shifts power and capital toward households, talk of a consumption pivot is just that: talk.

✍️ Nick Ayrton

When Premier Li Qiang told the “Summer Davos” crowd in Tianjin on June 25 that China can keep “relatively rapid” growth while moving from investment toward consumer spending, the applause drowned out a harsher ledger.

26/06/2025

Ceasefires offer brief pauses, but rarely peace.

Myanmar’s civil war continues, Alexander Stump reckons, not just because of military power or political fragmentation, but because the country has yet to confront its long history of ethnic suppression. Without reckoning with that past, will any ceasefire hold?

Despite temporary halts in fighting, deep-rooted ethnic tensions, fragmented resistance, and weak international pressure continue to obstruct any path to lasting peace in Myanmar.

25/06/2025

Russia backs India. China backs Pakistan. Their partnership endures despite these differences.

Sapna Suresh breaks down how strategic flexibility, not shared regional goals, keeps the Russia–China relationship intact.

Despite backing opposing sides in South Asia, Moscow and Beijing remain aligned in their flexible, anti-Western partnership.

12/06/2025

As we await the appointment of Mongolia’s next prime minister, Arlen Agiliga examines the popular protests and eventual vote of no confidence that led Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene to resign.

Get the full story at the link below. ⬇️

Economic development proves insufficient in placating the will of the Mongolian people.

09/06/2025

A new 6,500-mile rail corridor between Iran and China promises to cut delivery times in half and bypass Western-controlled chokepoints. But as Dr. Steven Terner writes, turning geopolitical vision into logistical reality is another matter.

A new overland trade route promises faster freight and strategic autonomy, but operational roadblocks threaten its success.