All Things Asian

A True Friend Is Gone Nick Ong aka Fakawi Chief as he was called among the South-East Asian mountain biking community, has passed today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nick Ong 1 was a man of many talents: creator of the Fakawi Tribe, captain of the Malaysian Fakawi Banshee Downhill Team, Malaysian importer of Banshee Bikes, jungle explorer on weekends, unwavering supporter of traks.org, the advocacy group for Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur’s mountain biking gem, outdoor and MTB film maker 2, oh, and also a medical doctor, all served by a sharp mind with an unparalleled sense of humour. ...

In North Sumatra, a former Indonesian radical has opened a boarding school for the children of terrorists to prevent their futures from looking like his own past. Words by: Gabrielle Lipton Photography by: Albert Ivan Damanik Wat happens when children begin to realise that their parents are following a different path? What happens when that path ends behind bars? Or on the receiving end of a bullet? What happens in the minds of children whose parents are terrorists? ...

The police have confirmed that some Malaysians, supported by the Islamic State (IS) militant group, are in the midst of engaging in ‘jihad’ in Myanmar to fight against the Myanmar Government for the oppressed Rohingya Muslim minority community in Rakhine State. – The MalayMail

Ms. Yang, center at front, with her soldiers, circa 1956. Credit Yang family Olive Yang was born to royalty in British colonial Burma, but rejected that life to become a cross-dressing warlord whose C.I.A.-supplied army established opium trade routes across the Golden Triangle. By the time of her death, last week at 90, she had led hundreds of men, endured prison and torture, generated gossip for her relationship with a film actress and, finally, helped forge a truce between ethnic rebels and the government. ...

By James Rickards - Daily Reckoning China’s problems are not entirely external and are not limited to the new Trump administration. China is now embroiled in an internal political struggle around the efforts of President Xi to make himself the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. President Xi’s first five-year term expires in March 2018. He is certain to be elected to a second term, but he has so far deviated from the script by not designating any potential successors for a smooth transition in 2023. At a minimum, this will make Xi more powerful after 2018 because it will eliminate the lame duck factor. Some observers fear that Xi’s real ambition is to capture a third-term running until 2028. This would be similar to Vladimir Putin’s gymnastics in Russia where he has used various means to hold power since 2000 and is expected to remain in power at least through 2020. Xi has also pursued an “anti-corruption campaign” that has conveniently resulted in the arrest of two of his most powerful rivals, Bo Xilai, the highly ambitious former mayor of Chongqing, and Zhou Yongkang, the head of China’s internal security apparatus. This pattern also mimics Putin’s Russia where corruption is tolerated as long as it is for personal enrichment, and does not transmute into geopolitics of political power. Those who aspire to power are brought down and arrested by the leadership. The question of whether Xi will disrupt the two-term system and seek a third term is open for now. Xi’s actions could provoke a backlash that will cause him to lose the Mandate of Heaven. At a minimum, the political uncertainty resulting from Xi’s moves makes policy responses to Trump’s provocations more difficult to predict. Policymakers are likely to make political rather than economic calculations in their decision-making. Economic policy optimization will suffer as a result. ...

From Reddit

Burma is strategically too important to China to let it go and become a US ally. It’s China’s outlet to the Indian Ocean, and oil- and gas-lines have been built from [Arakan] State to China’s Yunnan province. We have to bear in mind that human rights and democracy are not the two most important issues that determine US foreign policy. There is a new Cold War in Asia with an increasingly assertive China on one side and a loose alliance of the US, India and Japan on the other. – Bertil Lintner, Swedish journalist, author and Burma expert, The Irrawaddy.

On May 13th, I attended a conference at Sascha’s Shanghai. It’s a great place with lots of fresh beer on the first floor. But before rushing for refreshments - as we typically woukd do at a bar, we had a chat with Philippe Massonnet. He shared some thoughts on the development of China with us following the publication of his book The so-called “Chinese Miracle” [^1}. It was quite refreshing I reckon. ...

Nice post by Richard Brubaker on All Roads Lead To China regarding Competitive Intelligence and how companies obtain insider information in China. In China though, because so little is consistent in any industry and because everything here moves so fast, BI is very different here. It relies less on traditional tools (internet, news surfing, speaking to sales people, etc) and takes on a much more guerrilla approach. In many ways, it requires a deeper knowledge of the industry while at the same time having a real sense of where the hidden data lies, and being willing to go out and get that information. ...

Nice post by Richard Brubaker on All Roads Lead To China regarding Competitive Intelligence and how companies obtain insider information in China. In China though, because so little is consistent in any industry and because everything here moves so fast, BI is very different here. It relies less on traditional tools (internet, news surfing, speaking to sales people, etc) and takes on a much more guerrilla approach. In many ways, it requires a deeper knowledge of the industry while at the same time having a real sense of where the hidden data lies, and being willing to go out and get that information. ...