China AI Body Nets Southeast Asia Gains in Global South Bid
Plus big exercise launch; world first geoeconomic pact takes shape; joint defense partnership declaration; new aviation deal announcement and much, much more.
Greetings to new readers and welcome all to the latest edition of the weekly ASEAN Wonk BulletBrief! If you haven’t already, you can upgrade to a paid subscription for $5 a month/$50 a year below to receive full posts by inserting your email address and then selecting an annual or monthly option. You can visit this page for more on pricing for institutions, groups as well as discounts. For current paid subscribers, please make sure you’re hitting the “view entire message” prompt if it comes up at the end of a post to see the full version.
For this iteration of ASEAN Wonk BulletBrief, we are looking at:
Assessing the geopolitical and geoeconomic significance of several regional states joining a new China-initiated artificial intelligence body;
Mapping of regional developments, including big exercise launch and expanding economic partnership;
Charting evolving geopolitical, geoeconomic and security trends such as geoeconomic pact first; joint defense declaration and new aviation deal;
Tracking and analysis of industry developments and quantitative indicators including rare earths criticism; digital uptake; media first hype and more;
And much more!
This Week’s WonkCount: 2,347 words (~11 minutes)
Big Exercise Launch; Expanding Economic Partnership & More
Regional Links; Maritime Disruptions & Disinformation Realities
“[W]e must do more and turn our existing strengths into power,” warns a new strategy document released by the European Union this month that also characterizes the security of the Indo-Pacific and Europe as “more interlinked than ever” due to dynamics such as China’s assertive behavior across the Taiwan Strait and in the South and East China Seas (link to PDF).
“For Asia, there is no safe harbor…the resumption of shipping alone cannot restore the confidence that has been lost,” according to a report released by The Asia Group consulting firm on the regional implications of disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz which includes five Southeast Asia emerging markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) as well as Asia’s four largest economies (China, India, Japan and South Korea) (link to PDF).
“[R]esilience in the information domain cannot rest on governments alone,” cautions a new explainer released by the Australian Strategy Policy Institute think tank on potential cooperation between Australia and Japan on state-linked disinformation including areas such as narrative tracking, attribution thresholds and crisis protocols (link).
China AI Body Nets Southeast Asia Gains in Global South Bid
What’s Behind It
Some Southeast Asian states were included on the list of countries that joined as founding members of a China-initiated global artificial intelligence grouping during a series of meetings held in Shanghai this past week1. The development was unsurprisingly cast as being the latest datapoint in the storyline of competing U.S.-China mechanisms in the artificial intelligence domain in the Global South and the world more generally, with Washington continuing to develop initiatives of its own including a recently publicized new ministerial dialogue with Southeast Asian states2.
Select Key Recent China Related Developments with Southeast Asia Alongside World AI Conference
The engagements came alongside other related sectoral developments in the region. While China was keen to highlight new capacity-building announcements coming out of the AI engagements in Shanghai this past week, Beijing also had to simultaneously respond to allegations by the Philippines surrounding AI-generated material depicting the Filipinos as monkeys concerning the 2016 South China Sea arbitral tribunal award anniversary, which Chinese officials portrayed in response as not being an official government act3. Meanwhile, in mainland Southeast Asia, Vietnam led a stream of regional announcements with its bid to host an international AI competition out to 2027 with partners including the UN, following the recent release of designated high-risk AI systems in sectors like critical infrastructure and autonomous driving4.
Why It Matters
The dynamics also spotlighted policy datapoints to watch with wider implications (see originally generated ASEAN Wonk table below on notable areas to monitor and additional specifics. Paying subscribers can read on for more on what to expect and future implications in the rest of the “Why It Matters” and “Where It’s Headed” sections, along with paid-only sections of the newsletter as usual).
New Policy Datapoints, Along With Major Artificial Intelligence Areas And Select Key Actors
